Hoovervilles
Hooverville: A crudely built camp put up usually on the
edge of a town to house the many poverty stricken people
who had lost their homes during the Depression of the
1930s.
~~~~~~~
Many of the shantytowns that sprung up all over the nation
during the Depression were facetiously called Hoovervilles
because so many people at the time blamed President
Herbert Hoover for letting the nation slide into the Great
Depression. Coined by Charles Michelson, the Publicity
Chief of the Democratic National Committee, it was first
used in print media in 1930 when The New York Times
published an article about a shantytown in Chicago,
Illinois. The term caught on quickly and was soon used
throughout the country.
Squatter's shacks in "Hooverville,"
Portland, Oregon, Arthur Rothstein,
1936. Hooverville was the popular
name for shanty towns built by
homeless people during
the Depression. They took their
Though homelessness has been a problem throughout the name for President Herbert Hoover,
ages and was a common sight in the 1920’s, as hobos and Who the American people blamed
tramps lounged in city streets and rode the rails, it has
for the Depression.
never been more present in the United States as it was
during the Great Depression.
The causes of the Great Depression were many and varied,
beginning with rapid economic growth and financial excess of
the "Roaring Twenties.” During this time, many Americans
were quickly buying automobiles, appliances, and speculating
in the stock market. Unfortunately, much of this wild
spending was done on credit and while businesses were
making huge gains, the average workers’ wages were not
increasing at anywhere near the same rate.
But, like other "booms” throughout history, the cycle soon led
to a "bust.” As manufacturing output continued and farmers were over producing, circumstances
began to change, leading to falling prices and rising debt. At the same time, there was a major
banking crisis, serious policy mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, and with the stock market
crash in October, 1929 the country was thrown into a full-blown Depression that would affect the
nation for nearly a decade.
Businesses began to lay off people, which was quickly followed by homelessness as the
economy crumbled in the early 1930’s. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay
mortgages or pay taxes. Renters fell behind and faced eviction. Many squeezed in with relatives,
but hundreds of thousands were not so fortunate. Some defied eviction, staying where they were,
others found refuge in one of the increasing number of vacant buildings, more found shelter
under bridges, in culverts, empty water mains, or on vacant public lands, where they built crude
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shacks. When the Dust Bowl began in 1931 it made matters even worse. By 1932 millions of
Americans were living outside the “normal” housing market. Between 1929 and 1933, more than
100,000 businesses failed across the nation and when President Hoover left office in 1933, the
national unemployment rate was nearly 25%.
As these many people used whatever means they had at their disposal for survival, they blamed
Hoover for the downfall of economic stability and lack of government help. Making matters
worse, the minimal federal help that was provided often didn’t go to the sick, hungry and
homeless, as many state and local politicians of the time, were corrupt.
These teeming communities of makeshift shacks known as “Hoovervilles,” were often
concentrated in cities close to soup kitchens run by charities. The shelters themselves varied
widely, from stone houses and fairly solid structures built by those with construction skills, but,
far more that were thrown together with wood crates, cardboard, tar paper, scraps of cloth and
metal, and various other discarded materials. Within their shelters, most people had a small
stove, a few cooking implements, some bedding, and little else.
More derogatory terms blaming Hoover were
also coined including a “Hoover blanket,” which
was old newspaper used for blanketing; “Hoover
leather” was cardboard used to line a shoe when
the sole had worn through; a "Hoover wagon"
was an automobile with horses tied to it because
the owner could not afford fuel; freight cars used
for shelter were called “Hoover Pullmans,” and a
“Hoover flag” was an empty pocket turned inside
out.
Horse drawn automobiles were often referred to
These settlements were often established on
as "Hoover Wagons" during the Great
empty land and were rarely “recognized” by
Depression.
authorities as they were tolerated or ignored out
of necessity. However, that was not always the
case, especially if the occupants were trespassing
on private lands and some cities would not allow
them at all.
In May, 1933, President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” enacted a special relief program called the Federal
Transient Service (FTS). Shelters were established by the program that provided food, clothing,
medical care, and training and education programs. The relief also provided for rooms in boarding
houses and rent payments. A few camps were established in rural areas but, in the cities, the Federal
Government saw the problem as a local one.
The program helped many, it was unable to thousands of others and just two years later, in 1935, it
was phased out. The plan was then to get the homeless into work-related programs, such as the
Works Progress Administration (WPA). However, only about 20% of those formerly housed by the
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FTS were able to get jobs in the work programs. Though some were eligible for the Resettlement
Administration camps established for migratory workers, it was still not enough.
One such Hooverville “town” was located in New York
City’s Central Park. When the stock market crashed in
1929, it occurred just as a rectangular reservoir north of
Belvedere Castle was being taken out of service. By
1930, a few homeless people set up an informal camp at
the drained reservoir but were soon evicted. But, having
nowhere to go, they would come back and as public
sentiment became more sympathetic, they were allowed
to stay. Called “Hoover Valley,” the reservoir soon
sported a number of shacks on what was labeled
"Depression Street." One was even built of brick with a
roof of inlaid tile constructed by unemployed
bricklayers. Others built dwelling from stone blocks of the reservoir, including one shanty that was
20 feet tall. Though the settlement could not have been popular with the tenants of the new Fifth
Avenue and Central Park West apartments, but they mounted no protest.
There were other such settlements in New York – one called “Hardlucksville” which boasted some
80 shacks between Ninth and 10th Streets on the East River. Another called “Camp Thomas Paine,”
existed along the Hudson in Riverside Park. The Central Park disappeared sometime before April,
1933 when work on the reservoir landfill resumed.
In Seattle, Washington stood one of the largest, longestlasting, and best documented Hoovervilles in the
country, standing for ten years, between 1931 to 1941.
Though there were several located about the city, this
Hooverville was located on the tidal flats adjacent to the
Port of Seattle. The camp began when an unemployed
lumberjack Spread over nine acres, it housed a
population of up to 1,200. The camp began when an
unemployed lumberjack named Jesse Jackson and 20
other men started building shacks on the land. Within
just a few days 50 shanties were made available to the
homeless. However, the Health Department soon posted
notices on every shack to vacate them within a week. When the residents refused, the shacks were
burned down. But, they were immediately rebuilt, burned again, and rebuilt again, this time
underground, with roof made of tin or steel. With Jesse Jackson acting as a liaison between
Hooverville residents and City Hall, the Health Department finally relented and allowed them to stay
on the condition that they adhere to safety and sanitary rules. Jackson became the de facto mayor of
the shantytown, which also included its own form of community government. The “town” existed
until the land was needed for shipping facilities prior to World War II.
Chicago, Illinois Hooverville sprung up at the foot of Randolph Street near Grant Park, which also
claimed its own form of government, with a man named Mike Donovan, a disabled former railroad
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brakeman and miner, as its “Mayor.” In an interview with a reporter, Donovan would say “Building
construction may be at a standstill elsewhere, but down here everything is booming. Ours is a sort of
communistic government. We pool our interests and when the commissary shows signs of depletion,
we appoint a committee to see what leavings the hotels have.”
Another large Hooverville was situated along the banks of
the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. Supporting
some 500 people, it consisted of four distinct racial sectors,
though the people integrated to “support” their city. They
too had an unofficial mayor by the name of Gus Smith, who
was also a pastor. The community, which depended
primarily on private donations and scavenging, created its
own churches and other social institutions. It remained a
viable community until 1936, when the federal Works
Progress Administration allocated slum clearance funds for
the area.
These are but a few examples, as Hoovervilles existed all
over the United States -- at the edges of Portland, Oregon,
Washington D.C., Los Angeles, California, and everywhere in between.
In the latter half of the 1930’s, the number of homeless increased as factories closed and farmers
were displaced. The problem was made worse as more and more states increased residency
requirements for the homeless to apply for relief, requiring them to have lived there a certain amount
of time, and other conditions. For the many transients, this made them ineligible.
The private shelters were overwhelmed, as well as city officials trying to “police” the many
vagrants, which led to increased hostility towards the homeless. Some communities, especially in the
South and West, used extralegal means, such as border patrols, indigent laws, forced removals, and
unwarranted arrests, to keep the homeless out.
California was the "hardest hit" by transients during the
Depression years. Having only 4.7% of the population
when it began, they would wind up with 14% of the
nation's transients. Overwhelmed officials tried to figure
out how to absorb as many as 6,000 migrants crossing its
borders daily. Also feeling the effects of the Depression,
California infrastructures were already overburdened, and
the steady stream of newly arriving migrants was more
than the system could bear.
Los Angeles' answer was the “Bum Blockade.” In
February, 1936, Los Angeles Police Chief James E. “TwoGun” Davis, with the support of the Los Angeles Chamber
of Commerce, many public officials, the railroads, and
hard-pressed state relief agencies, dispatched 136 police
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officers to 16 major points of entry on the Arizona, Nevada and Oregon borders, with orders to turn
back migrants with "no visible means of support." This continued for several months until it was
finally withdrawn when the use of city funds for this project was questioned and a number of
lawsuits were threatened.
When John Steinbeck's book, the Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, it
raised public sympathy for the homeless. However, his book focused on the
drought refugees moving westward, rather than the majority of the homeless
population, which lived in cities. In the end, though, it would encourage
assistance. Just a month after the movie version was released in 1940, a
Congressional House committee began hearings on interstate migration of the
destitute. But, it would be World War II that would end the "problem." As the
nation turned its focus to defense, many of the homeless joined the military or
found employment in war industries. Shelters closed and relief programs were
reduced. In the meantime, the American Civil Liberties Union, which had been
fighting states' rights to restrict interstate migration, took their case all the way to
the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a ruling in 1941, agreeing that states could not restrict access
by poor people or any other Americans. But, it would be almost three more decades, in 1969, before
the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the residency requirements for benefit eligibility.
Getting rid of these many Hoovervilles was a difficult task as their residents had no other place to
call home. Though numerous attempts were made to eliminate these villages during the 1930’s, they
were unsuccessful. The New Deal programs helped to eliminate many of the shantytowns, but, some
cities were not enthusiastic about federal initiatives, arguing that public housing would depress
property values and make their cities susceptible to Communist influence.
Finally, in 1941, a shack elimination program was put into effect, and the many Hoovervilles across
the country were systematically eliminated. By this time, employment levels had begun to rise,
which gradually provided some shelter and security for formerly homeless Americans.
Homelessness would not recapture the national attention until the late 1970s, when it was thrust to
the forefront as a result of deindustrialization and urban renewal.
Today, the term “Hooverville” is still used to portray modern tent cities. However, the terms
“Bushville” and “Obamaville” became more common when describing the encampments of the
homeless and unemployed that appeared in the wake of mortgage foreclosures and the financial
crisis of 2007–2010. Ironically, the current era of financial strife, preceded by decades of excess,
includes many of those very same factors as the Great Depression, such as a major banking crisis,
policy mistakes of the Federal Reserve Board, and excessive debt.
© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated August, 2010.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/20th-hoovervilles.html
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Answer the following questions below if you need more space you may answer
them on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What is a Hooverville?
2. Why were they called Hoovervilles?
3. Who first coined this term?
4. What do the causes of the Great Depression begin with?
5. During this time what were Americans doing?
6. Unfortunately, what was most of the spending done on?
7. While businesses were making huge gains what was happening to worker wages?
8. What was the result of manufacturing and farming overproduction?
9. What other factors led to the countries full-blown depression?
10.How did homeowners lose their property?
11. In what ways did people deal with the evictions? List them
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12.What made matters worse?
13.Between 1929 and 1933 how many businesses failed?
14.By 1933 what was the national unemployment rate?
15.What did they blame hoover for?
16.What made matters worse?
17.Where were Hoovervilles often concentrated?
18.How did the construction of the shelters vary?
19.What did most of these shelters have in them?
Term
What was it?
Hoover blanket
20.
Hoover leather
21.
Hoover Wagon
22.
Hoover Pullman
23.
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Hoover Flag
24.
25.Where were these settlements often established?
26.What did the Federal Transient Service do?
27.What other relief did it provide?
28.What was the WPA?
29.What percent of the former FTS people were able to get unto the WPA?
30.Where was “Hoover Valley”?
31.How many shacks were there in “Hardlucksville”?
32.How long did the Hooverville in Seattle Washington last for?
33.What was the population of this Hooverville?
34.Where was Chicago Illinois Hooverville?
35.What type of government did it have?
36.What did the Hooverville situated along the on banks of the Mississippi River
in St. Louis, Missouri consist of?
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37.What did this community depend primarily on?
38.What made this Hooverville unviable in 1936?
39.In the 1930s what made the problem of homelessness worse?
40.What made the transients ineligible for relief?
41.What state was “hardest hit” by transients during the Great Depression?
42.What was the “Bum Blockade”?
43.In 1939, what helped raise public sympathy for the homeless?
44.What did this book focus on?
45.What ended the problem of interstate migration?
46.What did the Supreme Court rule in 1941?
47.What did the Supreme Court rule in 1969?
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48. Why was it a difficult task to get rid of many Hoovervilles?
49. Why were many of the cities not enthusiastic about the federal initiatives for
eliminate the shantytowns?
50.What was put into effect in 1941?
51.When would homelessness recapture the national attention?
52.What were the reasons for this?
53.What terms became more common to describe the encampments for homeless
and unemployed that appeared in the wake of mortgage foreclosures and the
financial crisis of the 2007-2010?
54.What is the irony of the current era of financial strife?
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