Hooverville
Makeshift poverty settlement
Hooverville was a shantytown of makeshift shelters built by homeless people during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The name blamed President Herbert Hoover for the economic collapse that left millions destitute.
Hoovervilles appeared in vacant lots and public lands across America: The police bulldozed the Hooverville near the railroad tracks.
The term now evokes any desperate encampment of the dispossessed.
Crudely built hut
- makeshiftTemporary, improvised substitute
- ramshackleBadly deteriorated from neglect
- lean-toSimple sloped shelter
- hovelWretched small dwelling
encampment · squatter · tarpaulin · plywood · jerry-built · cardboard · junkyard · favela
Ramshackle dwelling
- shackCrudely built hut
- tentPortable fabric shelter
- lean-toSimple sloped shelter
- cardboardRigid paper for containers
tarpaulin · encampment · squatter · hobo jungle · shantytown · unemployed · evicted · railroad
Severe lack of resources
- destitutionExtreme poverty, lacking necessities
- privationLack of necessities
- wantTo desire something
- hungerNeed for nourishment
starvation · desperation · hopelessness · suffering · misery · squalor · hand-to-mouth · subsistence
Lacking stable housing
- unshelteredHaving no overhead protection
- displacedShifted from proper location
- dispossessedDeprived of home or land
- evictedRemoved from property legally
destitute · transient · drifter · hobo · vagabond · itinerant · squatter · nomadic
Fourth decade, twentieth century
- unemploymentBeing without paid work
- breadlineQueue for free food
- foreclosureLender seizes mortgaged property
- evictionForced departure from rental
shack
Crudely built hut
- makeshiftTemporary, improvised substitute
- ramshackleBadly deteriorated from neglect
- lean-toSimple sloped shelter
hovel · encampment · squatter · tarpaulin · plywood · jerry-built · cardboard · junkyard · favela · slum
shanty
Ramshackle dwelling
cardboard · tarpaulin · encampment · squatter · hobo jungle · shantytown · unemployed · evicted · railroad · camp
poverty
Severe lack of resources
- destitutionExtreme poverty, lacking necessities
- privationLack of necessities
- wantTo desire something
hunger · starvation · desperation · hopelessness · suffering · misery · squalor · hand-to-mouth · subsistence · impoverishment
unhoused
Lacking stable housing
- unshelteredHaving no overhead protection
- displacedShifted from proper location
- dispossessedDeprived of home or land
evicted · destitute · transient · drifter · hobo · vagabond · itinerant · squatter · nomadic · roofless
1930s
Fourth decade, twentieth century
- unemploymentBeing without paid work
- breadlineQueue for free food
- foreclosureLender seizes mortgaged property
- Depression EraGreat Depression, breadline, dust storms, soup kitchen, New Deal
- slumsslum, slums, shanty, shanties, shack
- American slangbamboozle, bogus, bunkum, conniption, discombobulate
- campstent, tents, camp, shelters, campsite
- economic crisisrecession, depression, collapse, downturn, contraction
HoovervilleBeverly Hills
Affluent Southern California city
Park Avenue · mansion · penthouse · estate · gated community
Hoovervillepublic housing
Subsidized homes for poor
government housing · housing project · planned community · municipal housing · Levittown
HoovervilleNew Deal
Depression-era reform agenda
economic boom · Roaring Twenties · American Dream · prosperity · Great Society