Hoovervilles
Makeshift Depression settlements
Hoovervilles were makeshift shantytowns that sprang up across the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Named mockingly after President Herbert Hoover, whom many blamed for the economic collapse, these encampments of cardboard, scrap metal, and salvaged materials housed the newly homeless and unemployed.
The name captured public bitterness toward a government seen as indifferent to widespread suffering.
1930s global economic crisis
- shantytownPoor area of crude shelters
- 1930sFourth decade, twentieth century
- Dust BowlThirties prairie ecological collapse
- New DealDepression-era reform agenda
FDR · unemployment · breadlines · soup kitchens · stock market crash · bank failures · Okies · migrant workers
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- homelessnessLacking permanent residence
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- evictionForced departure from rental
- unemploymentBeing without paid work
breadlines · soup kitchens · hunger · desperation · survival · begging · transience · indigence
Crude, flimsy dwellings
- makeshift sheltersHastily assembled protective structures
- tin roofsLightweight metallic building tops
- cardboardRigid paper for containers
- tarpaulinWaterproof protective sheeting
plywood · corrugated metal · squatters · settlements · ramshackle · hovels · shanties · jerry-built
Great Depression
1930s global economic crisis
- shantytownPoor area of crude shelters
- 1930sFourth decade, twentieth century
- Dust BowlThirties prairie ecological collapse
New Deal · FDR · unemployment · breadlines · soup kitchens · stock market crash · bank failures · Okies · migrant workers · public works
destitution
Extreme poverty, lacking necessities
- homelessnessLacking permanent residence
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- evictionForced departure from rental
unemployment · breadlines · soup kitchens · hunger · desperation · survival · begging · transience · indigence · hardship
shacks
Crude, flimsy dwellings
- makeshift sheltersHastily assembled protective structures
- tin roofsLightweight metallic building tops
- cardboardRigid paper for containers
tarpaulin · plywood · corrugated metal · squatters · settlements · ramshackle · hovels · shanties · jerry-built · communal
- Depression EraGreat Depression, breadline, dust storms, soup kitchen, New Deal
- Depression survivalbread lines, soup kitchens, making do, scrimping, darning
- homelessnesshomeless, homeless shelters, unhoused, homeless veterans, houseless
- Interwar EconomicsGreat Depression, interwar period, hyperinflation, gold standard, New Deal
Hoovervillesmansions
Large, stately houses
public housing · luxury apartments · gated communities · estates · housing projects
HoovervillesRoaring Twenties
Prosperous 1920s era
economic boom · dot-com boom · American Dream · boomtowns · prosperity
Hoovervillessocial safety net
Public programs preventing destitution
welfare state · New Deal programs · public works · public works projects