As we all know, due to the Great Depression, unemployment soared as the economy collapsed. Along with unemployment, homelessness surged as landowners increased rent prices in attempts to pay their own cost of living. As such, by 1932 millions of Americans couldn’t afford normal rent and were kicked out of their old homes, moving into so-called “Hoovervilles.” One good example of a typical Hooverville was in Seattle, where Hoovervilles flourished for about a decade.
In Seattle, such places had originally been destroyed in 1930 and 1931 when neighbors complained. The police burned down the city’s central Hooverville twice, which was in an area called Pioneer Square. Each time, the residents rebuilt their settlement, and when a new mayor was elected in 1932, Seattle’s Hooverville was supported and started to to grow because his support was primarily founded on the Unemployed Citizen’s League.
By 1934, almost 500 self-built homes composed the Hooverville, with 639 residents occupying them — only 7 were women. Seattle’s government created a Vigilance Committee — two whites, two blacks, and two Filipinos who would be elected — in an attempt to impose order on the Hooverville. The city also required that women and children not live in the settlement, trying to keep it sanitary. As the main settlement grew, other towns popped up, and in late 1935, Seattle’s government estimated that there were between four thousand and five thousand residents in the various settlements.
Such Hoovervilles existed in Seattle until the cusp of World War II in 1941, when the city established a Shack Elimination Committee tasked with removing unauthorized housing clusters. In April, residents of the settlements were told to evict by May 1, and once again, police started to douse homes with kerosene and light them as examples. Seattle’s experiment was over.
Were there shelters for the homeless to stay the night in the 1930s? Whether or not it would have made a dent in the populations of the Hoovervilles, I wonder how people actually regarded the homeless at large and whether there were any government-funded shelters at the time.
ReplyDeleteThe constant opposition to the struggles of those in poverty and those without home outlined in your blog post, such as the police burning down Hooverville twice in Pioneer Square and the Shack Elimination Committee constantly removing these "unauthorized housing clusters" is incredibly important to point out. It especially connects to a prevailing issue throughout history, where homeless people even today are still excluded. Many cities put spikes on benches to prevent homeless people from sleeping in these spaces, and as a whole homeless people are at much higher risk for many health issues.
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