Hoovervilles

After the stock market crash of 1929, the country was faced with an unprecedented amount of homelessness and unemployment. Cities which previously were able to support the amount of homeless people through shelters and municipal housing projects no longer had the funds or resources to provide help to any homeless people, let alone the thousands that were out of a job due to the depression.  Without any government funded programs to keep the homeless population off the streets, the people were desperate for shelter and took the initiative to build their own living structures out of found materials on vacant lots, public land and empty alleyways. As more and more of these structures popped up, they became shantytowns, eventually named "Hoovervilles" to mock the poor efforts of President Hoover to improve economic conditions. Hoovervilles could be found all over the country as the depression worsened through the early 1930s and unemployed people lost their homes and whatever was left of their savings.


Hooverville shanties were made of a variety of materials from cardboard to glass to lumber to tin. Whatever could be found was used to construct shelter because the people could not afford to purchase any sustainable, quality materials. Some, such as the unemployed masons, were lucky and were able to build their shelters out of cast-off bricks and stone and were able to build shanties over 20 feet high. Most people were not able to find such quality materials, so the majority of Hooverville shelters were in a constant state of being rebuilt because something broke or blew away or was ruined by the weather. Some shelters were not even buildings, just deep holes in the ground with material laid over them as a roof.

In order to have a steady water source, Hoovervilles were built near rivers whenever possible. Several Hoovervilles also had vegetable gardens and the produce was shared among the inhabitants because food was very hard to come by. While Hoovervilles provided some shelter from the weather to those who lost their jobs and homes due to the depression, they did not provided any shelter from disease. They were very unsanitary and posed a health risk to the inhabitants and the people living in nearby towns and cities, but since the government was already limited on funds and resources, nothing could be done to protect people from the illnesses spread through Hoovervilles.

Since Hooverville residents really had no where else to go, there was much public sympathy for those unfortunate enough to have to live there. Even when men were arrested for building their shelters on public land, they were usually let go with no sentence or order to take down their constructions because everyone knew that they had no other options and were just trying to survive.


One of the most famous Hoovervilles was the one in New York City, located where Central Park's front lawn is today.  Prior to the stock market crash, the Central Park reservoir was drained in order to make room for the front lawn, but the money ran out and it was eventually left as abandoned land to be used when the government could afford it. People started building shelters on this land and even though many of them were arrested for trespassing, all charges were usually dropped out of sympathy. The population of this Hooverville grew into the thousands as the depression worsened and more people lost their homes. Residency in this area continued until 1933 when the economy was in recovery and work on the front lawn started up again.


sources - http://www.history.com/topics/hoovervilles, https://www.6sqft.com/the-history-of-central-parks-hooverville-the-great-depression-pop-up-shanty-town/