Hoovervilles and Homelessness
11/26/12 2:55 PM
Hoovervilles and Homelessness
"Hooverville" became a common
term for shacktowns and homeless
encampments during the Great Depression. There were dozens in the
state of Washington, hundreds
throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis
of the early 1930s.
"Hooverville" was a deliberately
politicized label, emphasizing that
President Herbert Hoover and the
Republican Party were to be held
responsible for the economic crisis
and its miseries.
Seattle's main Hooverville was one
of the largest, longest-lasting, and
best documented in the nation. It
stood for ten years, 1931 to 1941.
Click here to see more photographs
of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments
in
Seattle
and
Tacoma.Covering nine acres of public land, it housed a population of
up to 1,200, claimed its own community government including an
unofficial mayor, and enjoyed the
protection of leftwing groups and sympathetic public officials until the land was needed
for shipping facilities on the eve of World War II.
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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Seattle is fortunate to have the kind of detailed documentation of its Hooverville that
other cities lack, and we have compiled these unique resources here. Included are photographs, city documents, a 1934 sociological survey of residents, a short memoir written
by the former "mayor" of Hooverville, and more. We are grateful to the Seattle Municipal Archives, King County Archives, and the University of Washington Library Special
Collections for permission to incorporate materials in their collections.
Homelessness
Homelessness followed quickly from joblessness once the economy began to crumble in
the early 1930s. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or
pay taxes. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. By 1932 millions of Americans were
living outside the normal rent-paying housing market.
Many squeezed in with relatives. Unit densities soared in the early 1930s. Some squatted, either defying eviction and staying where they were, or finding shelter in one of the
increasing number of vacant buildings.
And hundreds of thousands--no one knows how many--took to the streets, finding what
shelter they could, under bridges, in culverts, or on vacant public land where they built
crude shacks. Some cities allowed squatter encampments for a time, others did not.
Seattle's Housing Politics
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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In Seattle shacks appeared in many
locations in 1930 and 1931, but authorities usually destroyed them after neighbors complained. What became the city's main Hooverville
started as a group of little huts on
land next to Elliott Bay south of
"skid road," as the Pioneer Square
area was then called. This was Port
of Seattle property that had been
occupied by Skinner and Eddy
shipyard during World War I. Today the nine acre site is used to un- Click to see google map of shack towns in Seattle area and more photos and
load container ships. It is just west descriptions.
of Qwest Field and the Alaska Viaduct.
Seattle police twice burned the early Hooverville, but each time residents rebuilt. When
a new mayor took office in 1932, owing his election in part to support of the Unemployed Citizen's League, Seattle's Hooverville gained a measure of official tolerance that
allowed it to survive and grow.
Hooverville's Population
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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By 1934 nearly 500 self-built oneroom domiciles were "scattered
over the terrain in insane disorder,"
according to Donald Roy, a sociology graduate student who studied
the community. He counted 639 residents in March of that year, all but
seven of them men. Most were unemployed laborers and timber
workers, few of whom had held any
jobs in the previous two years. It
was a highly diverse population. Donald Roy created this map of Seattle's Hooverville. Click the image to
Most were white with the majority see a larger version of the map and here to read excerpts from Roy's
sociological survey.
of them foreign-born, especially
Scandinavians. Nonwhites comprised 29% of the colony's population, including 120 Filipinos, 29 African Americas, 25 Mexicans, 4 Native Americans, 4 South Americans, and 2
Japanese. Roy found the relaxed social atmosphere remarkable, describing "an ethnic
rainbow" where men of many colors intermingled "in shabby comraderie."[1]
The city imposed modest building and sanitation rules, required that women and children not live in the Hooverville, and expected the residents to keep order. This was handled by an elected Vigilance Committee-- consisting of two whites, two blacks, and two
Filipinos-- led by a white Texas native and former lumberjack named Jesse Jackson, who
came to be known as the unofficial "Mayor" of Hooverville. In 1938, Jackson wrote a
short, vivid description of the community that we reproduce here. He explained that the
population was fluid, as men sold their shacks to newcomers and moved on, and at its
maximum during the winter months when it reached as hight as 1,200. He was proud of
the self-built community, saying "Hooverville is the abode of the forgotten man." [2]
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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Other Hoovervilles also developed:
one on the side of Beacon Hill
where today I-5 passes; one in the
Interbay area next to where the city
used to dump its garbage; and two
others along 6th Avenue in South
Seattle. In late 1935, the city Health
Department estimated that 4,000 to
5,000 people were living in the various shacktowns.[3]
The city tolerated Hoovervilles until
the eve of World War II. Early in
1941, the Seattle Health Department Tacoma's "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats" was burned by city officials in
1942, but was soon reoccupied and rebuilt. Courtesy Tacoma Public
established a Shack Elimination May
Library. Click image to see more pictures from the Tacoma Public Library
Committee to identify unauthorized Digital Archives.
housing clusters and plan their removal. A survey located 1687 shacks in five substantial colonies and many smaller ones.
In April, residents of the main Hooverville were given notice to leave by May 1. Police
officers doused the little structures with kerosene and lit them as spectators watched.
Seattle's Hooverville had lasted a full decade.[4]
Tacoma's Hooverville
Shanty towns also appeared in or near other cities. Tacoma hosted a large encampment
near the city garbage dump that residents called "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats." By the
end of the decade it covered a six block area and, like Seattle's Hooverville, included a
large number of little houses that residents had built out of scrap materials and steadily
improved over the years. City officials alternately tolerated and tried to eradicate the
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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shack town. In May 1942, shortly after Seattle destroyed its Hooverville, the Tacoma Fire
Department burned fifty of the "Hollywood" shacks. But residents rebuilt and the site remained occupied all the way through World War II.
Copyright (c) 2009, James Gregory
Next: Strikes and Unions
Here is more on Hoovervilles:
Research Reports
Seattle’s “Hooverville”: The Failure of Effective Unemployment Relief in the Early 1930s by
Magic Demirel
"Hoovervilles," shanty towns of unemployed men, sprung up all over the nation, named after President
Hoover's insufficient relief during the crisis. Seattle's developed into a self-sufficient and organized
town-within-a-town.
A Tarpaper Carthage: Interpreting Hooverville, by Joey Smith
Seattle's Hooverville and its residents were portrayed as violent, exotic, and separate from the rest of
Seattle, obscuring the social accomplishments and self-organization of shantytown residents.
"Nobody Paid any Attention": The Economic Marginalization of Seattle's Hooverville, by
Dustin Neighly
Seattle's decision to raze Hooverville in 1941 and expel its residents relied on a discourse of "otherness"
that set Hooverville economically, socially, and geographically apart.
Self-Help Activists: The Seattle Branches of the Unemployed Citizens League by Summer Kelly
In the summer of 1931 a group of Seattle residents organized to establish self-help enterprises and
demand that government officials create jobs and increase relief assistance to unemployed.
Organizing the Unemployed: The Early 1930s by Gordon Black
As elsewhere in the country, Washington State's Communist Party helped to organize the unemployed
into active political and social formations. In Washington, the Unemployed Citizen's League and its
newspaper, The Vanguard, gained the state Communists a broad appeal, and integrated the unemployed
into the state's radical reform coalitions.
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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Primary Source Documents
The Story of Seattle's Hooverville by Jesse Jackson, "Mayor" of Hooverville
Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle by Donald Francis Roy
Roy lived in the Hooverville in spring 1934 while conducting this survey which became his 1935 MA
thesis. He offers fascinating observations about social mores and culture of the community, including the
easy racial relations and tolerance of homosexuality.
Seattle Municipal Archives Documents
Petition for community bath houses in Hooverville (May 15, 1935)
Response from Health Department (May 23, 1935)
Excerpt from Health Department Annual Report (1935)
Request for removal of Interbay shacks (April 24, 1937)
Protest against Hooverville evictions (October 10, 1938)
Letter from Housing Authority to City Council (March 4, 1941)
Report of Shack Elimination Committee (April 14, 1941)
Exhibt A: Map of Number and Distribution of Shacks (March 5, 1941)
Exhibit B: Location and Number of Shacks (March 5, 1941)
Exhibit C: Physical Conditions and Occupancy of Shacks (March 5, 1941)
Excerpt from "The Story of Hooverville, In Seattle" by Jesse Jackson, Mayor of Hooverville (1935)
Excerpt from "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle" by Donald Francis
Roy (1935)
Excerpt from "Seattle's Hooverville" by Leslie D. Erb (1935)
Notes
[1] Donald Francis Roy, "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in
Seattle," (M.A. Thesis, University of Washington, 1935), pp.42-45
[2] Jesse Jackson, "The Story of Seattle's Hooverville," in Calvin F. Schmid, Social Trends
in Seattle (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1944), 286-93.
[3] Report of the Sanitation Divison December 31, 1935 as quoted in Excerpt from the
Health Department Annual Report 1935, Seattle Municipal Archives: http://www.seattle.gov/CityArchives/Exhibits/Hoover/1935ar.htm (accessed December 29, 2009)
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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[4] Report of Shack Elimination Committee (April 14, 1941), Seattle Municipal Archives
(accessed December 29, 2009)
http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml
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