Hoovervilles: Homeless, Jobless Communities in the Great Depression (1929-1936..)

[appalachiablue]

After the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression, many Americans lost their homes and jobs and resorted to living in makeshift colonies, Hoovervilles named for the current, ineffective Republican President, Herbert H. Hoover.

Shantytowns grew up in New York's Central Park, near the steps of the US Capitol building in Washington, DC and across the United States in order to shelter the unemployed and homeless.
One in four men, officially 25% of the population, were out of work during the Great Depression. Thousands stood in breadlines for food and 'relief', many lived in Hoovervilles, and others traveled on trains across the country as 'hobos' looking for work.

The rate of unemployment in the Great Depression reached 50% in some communities and areas and the suicide rate is unknown. At one point Pres. Hoover suggested that the Red Cross assist the crisis, and he authorized supplying money to the wealthy thinking it would 'TRICKLE DOWN' to the poor. W-R-O-N-G.

In 1932, Hoover lost the presidential election to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democratic Governor of New York by a landslide. With his cabinet, FDR ushered in major works programs, New Deal reforms and labor legislation that strengthened the workforce, the US economy and created the basis for the American middle class, the envy of the world.

FDR was re-elected President for three more terms, and died in spring 1945 toward the end of the Second World War.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt's legacy as one of the greatest American presidents of all time is undisputed.

> This video essay on Hoovervilles of the Great Depression was created by a student.
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~ Wiki, Homelessness in Seattle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Seattle

[appalachiablue]

1. The Great Depression in America and homeless, Hooverville towns, 1929-1936..

When FDR came to office in 1932, the newly elected democratic president selected accomplished, progressive officials to work in his cabinet and government.
They included the first woman Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins and Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., wealthy businessman and investor who survived the stock market crash that FDR made first head of the new agency, the SEC, the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate finance.
Others worked on banking reform legislation such as the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, New Deal programs and strengthening the US labor force through jobs programs and social safety actions.

[Warpy]

2. Hoovervilles were often on wasteland near town dumps

because that's where the materials were. A lot of people just did small hovels out of cardboard because townspeople, whipped into frenzies over sensationalized reports of crime and debauchery among the homeless, had a nasty habit of burning them down frequently.

Hoover's problem was that he didn't know how economies function, something he shared with all fiscal conservatives today in both parties. Roosevelt had an idea that the only way to get the economy back on track was to stimulate the demand side and that was only after he'd tried to support farm prices by dumping food to create artificial shortages in front of starving people with no money.

Even then, conservatives insisted on a balanced budget in 1936 that ended his programs prematurely, ushering in the Great Recession of 1937.

[appalachiablue]

3. Dumps and industrial areas were utilized for sure, and attacks by 'good folks' are

all too common among the uglier of the human species. Hoover's policies, those of Harding and Coolidge before him, 'Less govt. in business; more business in govt.' were destructive to workers although gravy for the top as always. I read how in 1936 FDR was pushed to adverse actions that triggered a backslide, pesky economic conservatives always muck it up.

When I searched this topic today on YouTube it was puzzling to see the change in many classic video clips of FDR's famous speeches and film footage. Much material has been merged with lengthier (I hour) PBS/Amer. Experience type programs and rather randomly. In other words there are few clean copies of major events it seems, items I easily found less than a year ago. Not liking that alteration at all.

~ If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may know peace. ~ Thomas Paine.

[jwirr]

4. All across the country these shanty towns could be found.

My parents lived in a one room wood structure home that I was born in but they were lucky. They lived in a rural area where they could grow food, and animals. The home was heated with a wood cook stove and there was an outhouse. Also a small barn for animals.

My cousins lived in NW MN in a tarpaper shack. It was divided down the middle with another tarpaper wall. On one side were cubicles petitioned off for bedrooms also with tarpaper. On the other side was a kitchen with a wood cook stove and a long kitchen table and benches. 12 family members lived in this shack in the very cold winters. The outhouse was in the woods and it was not unusual to run into some animal. They survived by hunting and fishing and gardening in the summer.

Not everyone lived that way but the poor did. I always remember those two houses. I was little enough that I saw them as an adventure. I am sure that in the middle of the winter the adults did not.