Hoovervilles were hundreds of makeshift homeless encampments built near large cities across the United States during the Great Depression (1929-1933). [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), [4] Report of Shack Elimination Committee (April 14, 1941), Seattle Municipal Archives (accessed December 29, 2009), Civil Rights and Labor History Consortium. Back to History for Kids. At its peak, roughly 25%, maybe more, of the American work force was unemployed. These areas were frequently on private lands, but the trespassing settlements were simply ignored as the crisis demanded. As such, he was highly reluctant to shift the federal government into high gear to try and solve an economic crisis. The inhabitants of the Hoovervilles and shantytowns in the 1930s were deprived of many of these basic needs - for additional facts refer to Poverty in the Great Depression. Economic disparity in the United States during the 1930s was not limited to American born individuals. Hundreds of Hoovervilles were established across the country during the 1930s. "; (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). The answer to this question is practically anywhere. "[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 worksheet can be edited by Premium members using the free Google Slides online software. Writer John Steinbeck featured a family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939. "Nobody Paid any Attention": The Economic Marginalization of Seattle's Hooverville, by Dustin Neighly, Seattles Hooverville: The Failure of Effective Unemployment Relief in the Early 1930s by Magic Demirel, Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle by Donald Francis Roy, The Story of Seattle's Hooverville by Jesse Jackson, "Mayor" of Hooverville, Seattle Municipal Archives Hooverville Documents. They posed health risks to their inhabitants as well as to those living nearby, but there was little that local governments or health agencies could do. Link will appear as Hooverville Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, October 18, 2018. [2] Among the white population, nationalities included English, Irish, Polish, Spanish, Italian, and Russian. Desperate for shelter, homeless citizens built shantytowns in and around cities across the nation. 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. Some claim to have been made up of men, women, and children, while others claim to only have had men. Some Hoovervilles even received assistance from churches and private donors. "Hoovervilles: Homeless Camps of the Great Depression." Seattle's developed into a self-sufficient and organized town-within-a-town. months[2] = "Learning made easy with the various learning techniques and proven teaching methods used by the Siteseen network. [17] Movies such as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Sullivan's Travels (1941) sometimes sentimentalized Hooverville life.[18]. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In 1934, Roy recorded a population of non-White people, including Black men, Costa Rican, Chilean, Filipino, Japanese, Mexican, and. Hoovervilles and Homelessness. Try refreshing the page, or contact customer support. Interesting Facts About Hoovervilles During the Great Depression The Bonus Army of veterans built a large Hooverville in Washington D.C. that housed around 15,000 people. People experiencing homelessness made them from scraps of wood, tin, tar, and cardboard, and named . It is a city built on hills and around water, in a mild marine climate that encourages prolific . The people who lived in a Hooverville or Shanty Town were men, women and children, black and white, from all walks of life, who had been evicted from their homes and made homeless due to unemployment in the Great Depression. Usually built on vacant land, the camps were largely tolerated by city authorities. Between 1929 and 1932, the value of world trade declined by more than half. Beyond the waters lie two rugged mountain ranges, the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. The term was a derogatory reference to President Herbert Hoover, who many people blamed for allowing the U.S. to fall into economic despair. Hooverville served as a home for different nationalities and ethnicities. By the middle of 1941, Roosevelts New Deal programs had increased employment to the point that all but a few Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. Interesting Facts About the Great Depression The stock market lost almost 90% of its value between 1929 and 1933. Hoovervilles began to disappear after the election of Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal promised to put the federal government into activist mode to try to end the Great Depression. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was the President of the United States during the start of the Great Depression and was given the blame for it. Request for removal of Interbay shacks (April 24, 1937) President Herbert Hoover did not do much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he argued, were all Americans read more, The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. Excerpt from Health Department Annual Report (1935) Herbert Hoover was president during the start of the Great Depression. "Hoovervilles" were hundreds of crude campgrounds built across the United States by poverty stricken people who had lost their homes because of the Great Depression of the 1930s. This building housed a mayora's office and a commissary, or grocery store. [7], While some Hoovervilles created a sort of government, most were unorganized collections of shanty houses. He was the President, after all, and there were many things he could do--but he was in trouble from the start, for a couple of different reasons. 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. The new population was forced to set up makeshift "towns" known as "Hoovervilles." 16. Hoover also received criticism for signing, in June 1930, the controversial Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which imposed a high tariff on foreign goods in an effort to prevent them from competing with U.S.-made products on the domestic market. Homeless people roamed the country looking for food and work. Over its eight years of existence, the WPA put roughly 8.5 million Americans to work read more, The 1930s in the United States began with an historic low: more than 15 million Americansfully one-quarter of all wage-earning workerswere unemployed. The publics frustration with President Hoovers refusal to deal with the Depression peaked in the spring of 1932 when an estimated 15,000 World War I veterans and their families established a Hooverville along the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. On June 17, 1932, many of the veterans, known as the Bonus Army, marched on the U.S. Capitol demanding payment the badly needed WWI combat bonuses the government had promised them. Sign Up. The longest lasting Hooverville, located in Seattle, Washington, stood as a semi-autonomous community from 1931 to 1941. "; In 1929, unemployment was around 3%. When most of the veterans refused to leave their shacks, Hoover sent in U.S. Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur to evict the Bonus Army. Petition for community bath houses in Hooverville (May 15, 1935) The Great Depression started on Wall Street. ThoughtCo. A 'Hooverville' on waterfront of Seattle, Washington, March 1933. However, most buildings were little more than crude shelters thrown together from wooden crates, cardboard boxes, tar paper, scrap metal, and other fire-prone discarded materials. During the Great Depression, other Hoovervilles were built in. In late 1935, the city Health Department estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 people were living in the various shacktowns. The city of Seattle tolerated the unemployed living situation and imposed loose building and sanitation rules. They are crowded, dirty, miserable, and they are places where the homeless gather to build temporary homes. As the Great Depression worsened, so too did people's moods. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/hoovervilles-homeless-camps-of-the-great-depression-4845996. The reaction to all of this was often characterized by a grim sort of humor, sometimes represented by popular songs like the 1930's 'Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?' By the early 1940s, Roosevelts New Deal programs had turned the economy around and many of the Hoovervilles had been abandoned and demolished. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. Herbert Hoover was a rising star of American politics when he won the presidential election of 1928. 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. Almost 6,000 shanty towns, called Hoovervilles, sprang up in the 1930s. Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the United States during the Great Depression. The Depression was blamed on President Herbert Hoover, after whom the town was named after, as coined by Charles Michelson. [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. There was no work, people were starving and the local police repeatedly burned down the camp. The name was a reference to Herbert Hoover who was the President of the United States during the at the start of the Depression and widely blamed for it. Probably the most famous Hooverville was the one founded on Anacostia Flats, just outside Washington, D.C., in 1932. Because of the lack of government, it took a lot of work. The peak of the Great Depression was from 1932 to 1933. Chapter 1: The Great Depression Strikes Pennsylvania Chapter 2: Political Change and the New Deal Coalition Chapter 3: The New Deal in Pennsylvania: Public Works and Organized Labor Chapter 4: Popular Culture and Society in the 1930s Learn More Story Details Historical Markers In the Story Original Documents Story Credits Story Bibliography Letter from Housing Authority to City Council (March 4, 1941) Roosevelts recovery program, known as the New Deal, eventually reduced unemployment, regulated banking and helped turn the ailing economy around with public works projects and other economic programs. It maintained itself as a free-standing community until 1936, when it was razed. Multiple factors led to the Great Depression, including the U.S. stock market crash in October 1929 and the widespread failure of the American banking system, both of which helped destroy confidence in the nations economy. Definition, Examples, Pros and Cons. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. Some of the homeless found shelter inside empty conduits and water mains. Check out the Siteseen network of educational websites. WATCH: America: The Story of Us on HISTORY Vault. Facts About Hoovervilles The term Hooverville came from the blame on President Herbert Hoover for the intolerable economic and social conditions. Odd pieces of wood, stones, loose boards, crates, cardboard, scraps of other materials, old bricks and parts of boxes. A Tarpaper Carthage: Interpreting Hooverville, by Joey Smith, "Hooverville" became a common term for shacktowns and homeless encampments during the Great Depression. Some have estimated that 500 Hoovervilles sprang up in 1929 and increased in number to over 6000 in the 1930s. The Red Scare of the 1920s History & Overview | What was the First Red Scare? Technically, these settlements were often in violation of state or local law; and even though they were often raided, it became common practice for authorities to endure them. Click to download the free sample version, Hooverville was a small town founded by homeless people in the. Thesis, University of Washington, 1935), pp.42-45. here to see more photographs of Hoovervilles and homeless encampments in Seattle and Tacoma. They were built by unemployed impoverished Americans that had been made homeless and had nowhere else to live. The committee included two Whites, two Blacks, and two Filipinos. Some shelters were little more than holes in the ground covered with tin or cardboard. A 'Hoover blanket' was a newspaper, covering a homeless man on a city bench; a 'Hoover flag' was a turned-out pants pocket, a sure sign of pennilessness. Browse Catalog. 1933 is generally regarded as the worst year of the Depression: One-quarter of Americas workersmore than 15 million peoplewere out of work. 19. While private and corporate philanthropy provided some assistance during the early 1930s, poverty continued to increase rapidly. He was proud of the self-built community, saying "Hooverville is the abode of the forgotten man." You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards. The Tacoma Fire Department burned down fifty small houses in May 1942 after Seattle destroyed Hooverville. This began with a heated debate over the status and rights of Hooverville residents, who became more visible in petitions submitted throughout the late 1930s. About this quiz: All the questions on this quiz are based on information that can be found on the page at The Great Depression - Hoovervilles . Each Hooverville was unique. This website helped me pass! However, the countrys 31st president, Republican Herbert Hoover, who took office in March 1929, believed that self-reliance and self-help, not government intervention, were the best means to meet citizens needs. This was at a time when most workers didn't have access to unemployment benefits, health care, or Social Security--in fact, none of the programs that could provide that kind of help even existed. Tacoma hosted a large encampment near the city garbage dump that residents called "Hollywood-on-the-Tideflats." @media (min-width: 340px) { .adslot_1 { width: 336px; height: 280px; } } Named for President Herbert Hoover, the ramshackle settlements ranged in size and were set up across the nation. Around 11,000 banks failed during the Great Depression, leaving many with no savings. People were expected to fend for themselves. This pattern became associated with Oklahoma because that state provided a plurality of migrants from 1935 to 1940, the peak of the phenomenon. months[5] = "Explore the interesting, and fascinating selection of unique websites created and produced by the Siteseen network. Seattle was also the location of seven other shantytowns. Library of Congress. In addition to his perceived disregard for the harm done by the Great Depression, Hoover was criticized for backing the controversial Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles. The Hoovervilles varied in size from just a few shacks clustered together to communities of over 1000 rickety shacks covering acres of unused or public lands. The Great Depression was the most severe and enduring economic collapse of the 20th century, and included abrupt declines in the supply and demand of goods and services along with a meteoric rise in unemployment. Many features of life during the Great Depression were given bitter connotations with Hoover's name. months[3] = "Check out the interesting and diverse websites produced and created by the international publisher in the Siteseen network. A "Hoover flag" was an empty pocket turned inside out and "Hoover leather" was cardboard used to line a shoe when the sole wore through. Around 15,000 men joined the movement, many of whom came from far away and arrived in the area by illegally riding on railroad freight trains. He wrote that the racial barriers constructed in normal society did not stand within the Hooverville. Excerpt from "Hooverville: A Study of a Community of Homeless Men in Seattle" by Donald Francis Roy (1935) President Herbert Hoover lost the election in 1932 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. This drain reservoir became the site of an informal camp established by a few homeless people, but they were quickly evicted. Although people would often use castoff lumber and building materials, more often than not Hooverville structures were built with cardboard, tar paper, and other comparatively flimsy elements. 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 361 lessons. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. However, some countries retaliated by raising their tariffs, and international trade was hampered. Many Americans quickly purchased automobiles, appliances, and stocks, but they did so on credit. Homeowners lost their property when they could not pay mortgages or pay taxes. A shantytown, also known as a Hooverville (named for U.S. President Herbert Hoover), was located in Seattle, Washington, during the Great Depression. 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