Hoovervilles of the Great Depression
The term "Hooverville" remains a stark and evocative symbol of the widespread poverty and desperation that gripped the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These settlements, born from the ashes of economic collapse, were more than just collections of shacks; they were testaments to human resilience, ingenuity, and the failure of a nation to protect its most vulnerable citizens. This article delves into the history of these makeshift communities, examining their origins, characteristics, social dynamics, and eventual decline.
A Hooverville was, in essence, a shantytown, a crudely constructed encampment that sprang up on the fringes of cities and towns across the country. These settlements provided a desperate refuge for the countless Americans who lost their homes, jobs, and savings in the wake of the economic downturn. The name itself, "Hooverville," was a bitter indictment of President Herbert Hoover, whom many blamed for the Depression and the government’s perceived inaction in addressing the crisis.
The genesis of the Great Depression was a complex interplay of factors. The "Roaring Twenties" had been a period of unprecedented economic expansion, fueled by consumerism, speculation, and readily available credit. Many Americans embraced a lifestyle of purchasing automobiles, appliances, and other goods on installment plans, while others invested heavily in the stock market, often on margin. However, this prosperity was not evenly distributed, and the wages of average workers lagged behind the soaring profits of businesses.
This unsustainable boom inevitably led to a bust. As manufacturing output continued to rise and farmers experienced overproduction, prices began to fall, and debt levels soared. A severe banking crisis and policy missteps by the Federal Reserve further exacerbated the situation. The stock market crash of October 1929, infamously known as Black Tuesday, served as the catalyst for a full-blown economic depression that would plunge the nation into a decade of hardship.
The consequences of the Depression were devastating. Businesses shuttered their doors, leading to widespread layoffs and unemployment. Homeowners faced foreclosure as they struggled to make mortgage payments, and renters were evicted from their apartments. While some families were able to find shelter with relatives, hundreds of thousands of Americans were left with nowhere to go. Some desperately clung to their homes, defying eviction orders, while others sought refuge in abandoned buildings. Increasingly, however, the homeless population gravitated towards vacant public lands, where they began to construct makeshift shelters from whatever materials they could find. The onset of the Dust Bowl in 1931, a period of severe drought and ecological devastation in the Great Plains, further compounded the crisis, displacing countless farmers and driving them westward in search of work and sustenance.
By 1932, millions of Americans were living outside the conventional housing market, struggling to survive in the face of widespread poverty and despair. Between 1929 and 1933, over 100,000 businesses failed nationwide, and when President Hoover left office in 1933, the national unemployment rate had soared to nearly 25%.
As people desperately sought to survive, they directed their anger and frustration towards President Hoover, whom they perceived as indifferent to their plight. Making matters worse, the limited federal assistance that was available often failed to reach those who needed it most, due to corruption and inefficiency at the state and local levels.
These burgeoning communities of makeshift shacks, derisively dubbed "Hoovervilles," were often located near urban centers, close to soup kitchens and charitable organizations that provided essential sustenance. The shelters themselves varied widely in construction and quality. Some were relatively sturdy structures built by those with construction skills, while others were cobbled together from scavenged materials such as wooden crates, cardboard, tar paper, scraps of cloth and metal, and other discarded items. Inside these humble dwellings, residents typically possessed only a small stove, a few cooking utensils, some bedding, and little else.
The association with President Hoover extended beyond the name "Hooverville". A "Hoover blanket" was a newspaper used for warmth; "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to patch worn-out shoes; a "Hoover wagon" was a horse-drawn automobile, a symbol of the owner’s inability to afford gasoline; freight cars used for shelter were called "Hoover Pullmans"; and a "Hoover flag" was an empty pocket turned inside out.
These settlements were often established on unoccupied land, tolerated or ignored by authorities out of necessity. However, this was not always the case, particularly when the occupants were trespassing on private property. Some cities actively discouraged or even prohibited the formation of Hoovervilles.
In May 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s "New Deal" initiatives included the Federal Transient Service (FTS), a special relief program designed to assist the homeless population. The FTS established shelters that provided food, clothing, medical care, and training and education programs. The program also provided rooms in boarding houses and rent payments. While some camps were established in rural areas, the federal government largely viewed homelessness in urban areas as a local problem.
Although the FTS provided assistance to many, it was unable to reach all those in need, and the program was phased out in 1935. The goal was to transition the homeless into work-related programs, such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA). However, only about 20% of those previously housed by the FTS were able to secure jobs in these work programs. While some were eligible for the Resettlement Administration camps established for migratory workers, these resources remained insufficient to meet the overwhelming need.
One notable Hooverville emerged in New York City’s Central Park. Following the stock market crash in 1929, a rectangular reservoir north of Belvedere Castle was drained. By 1930, homeless individuals began to establish a makeshift camp at the site of the drained reservoir, but they were initially evicted. However, lacking alternative options, they returned, and as public sentiment shifted in their favor, they were eventually allowed to remain. The area, known as "Hoover Valley," soon housed numerous shacks along what was humorously referred to as "Depression Street." One dwelling was even constructed of brick with a roof of inlaid tile by unemployed bricklayers. Others built shelters from stone blocks salvaged from the reservoir, including one shanty that stood 20 feet tall. While the settlement may have been viewed unfavorably by residents of the nearby Fifth Avenue and Central Park West apartments, no formal protests were lodged.
Other Hoovervilles existed in New York City, including "Hardlucksville," which comprised approximately 80 shacks between Ninth and 10th Streets on the East River, and "Camp Thomas Paine," located along the Hudson River in Riverside Park. The Central Park Hooverville disappeared before April 1933, when work on the reservoir landfill resumed.
Seattle, Washington, was home to one of the largest, longest-lasting, and best-documented Hoovervilles in the United States, existing for a decade between 1931 and 1941. Situated on the tidal flats adjacent to the Port of Seattle, the camp initially began when an unemployed lumberjack named Jesse Jackson and 20 other men began constructing shacks on the land. Within days, 50 shanties were available to the homeless. However, the Health Department soon posted notices on each shack, ordering the residents to vacate within a week. When the residents refused, the shacks were burned down. Undeterred, they were immediately rebuilt, burned again, and rebuilt once more, this time underground, with roofs made of tin or steel. With Jesse Jackson serving as a liaison between the Hooverville residents and City Hall, the Health Department eventually relented and allowed them to remain, provided they adhered to safety and sanitary regulations. Jackson became the de facto mayor of the shantytown, establishing a form of community government. The "town" persisted until World War II, when the land was needed for shipping facilities.
In Chicago, Illinois, a Hooverville sprung up at the foot of Randolph Street near Grant Park. This community also established its own form of government, with a man named Mike Donovan, a disabled former railroad brakeman and miner, serving as its "Mayor." In an interview, Donovan stated, "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 substantial Hooverville was located along the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. Supporting approximately 500 people, it consisted of four distinct racial sectors, although the residents integrated to "support" their city. The community also had an unofficial mayor, Gus Smith, who was also a pastor. The community, which relied primarily on private donations and scavenging, established 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 just a few examples of the Hoovervilles that dotted the landscape of the United States during the Great Depression. They could be found on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, California, and countless other locations.
As the Depression deepened in the latter half of the 1930s, the homeless population continued to grow as factories closed and farmers were displaced. The problem was further exacerbated by the increasing number of states that implemented residency requirements for the homeless to qualify for relief, requiring them to have lived in the state for a certain period of time and meet other conditions. These requirements effectively excluded many transients from receiving assistance.
Private shelters were overwhelmed, and city officials struggled to "police" the growing number of vagrants, leading to increased hostility towards the homeless. Some communities, particularly in the South and West, resorted to extralegal measures, such as border patrols, indigent laws, forced removals, and unwarranted arrests, to keep the homeless out.
California was particularly "hard hit" by transients during the Depression years. Despite having only 4.7% of the nation’s population at the start of the Depression, the state eventually absorbed 14% of the nation’s transients. Overwhelmed officials struggled to manage the influx of as many as 6,000 migrants crossing the state’s borders each day. Already burdened by the effects of the Depression, California’s infrastructure was strained to its limits, and the steady stream of new arrivals was more than the system could bear.
Los Angeles responded with the "Bum Blockade." In February 1936, Los Angeles Police Chief James E. "Two-Gun" Davis, with the support of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, public officials, the railroads, and state relief agencies, dispatched 136 police 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 policy remained in effect for several months until it was eventually withdrawn after the use of city funds for the project was questioned, and several lawsuits were threatened.
The publication of John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath, in 1939, helped to raise public sympathy for the plight of the homeless. While the book primarily focused on the drought refugees migrating westward, rather than the broader homeless population living in cities, it nonetheless contributed to a growing awareness of the issue and encouraged greater assistance. Shortly after the release of the film adaptation in 1940, a Congressional House committee began hearings on interstate migration of the destitute.
Ultimately, however, it was World War II that brought an end to the "problem" of the Hoovervilles. As the nation focused its attention on defense, many homeless individuals joined the military or found employment in war industries. Shelters closed, and relief programs were scaled back. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged states’ rights to restrict interstate migration, taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1941, the Court ruled in favor of the ACLU, agreeing that states could not restrict access by poor people or any other Americans. However, it would take nearly three more decades, until 1969, for the Supreme Court to declare residency requirements for benefit eligibility unconstitutional.
Eliminating the Hoovervilles proved to be a difficult task, as their residents had nowhere else to call home. Despite numerous attempts to dismantle these settlements throughout the 1930s, they largely persisted. The New Deal programs helped to reduce the number of shantytowns, but some cities resisted federal initiatives, arguing that public housing would depress property values and make their cities vulnerable to Communist influence.
Finally, in 1941, a shack elimination program was implemented, and the remaining Hoovervilles across the country were systematically dismantled. By this time, employment levels had risen, gradually providing shelter and security for formerly homeless Americans.