Hoovervilles

HOOVERVILLES


 * INTRO **



Hoovervilles are the unofficial name given to ghetto shanty towns that were set up by homeless people that couldnt afford houses in the great depression.

The Stock Market Crash that happened in October of 1929 deepened even further the US great depression, this led to people doing whatever they needed to do to surviva l.

** ﻿ FORMING A NEW HOME**

Like Human Pack Rats, regular everyday people that were affected by the hardships of the depression had to carry and wheel with them scrap bits of tin, lumber and metal to the new housing locations across the US. Some people were fortunate enough to have some background in carpentry and had the skill to build a decent structure with the scrap items they had, however other with no such skill, had to make shelters out of card board boxes and tarps to keep out of the elements.

The most famous hooverville is the shanty town the occupied New York City's Central Park, Home of the Stock Market Crash, However the Largest Hooverville in the US during the great depression was located in St. Louis and had a population of over 1000 people.

**THE ECONOMY**

The longer that the depression hung over the people of the US, taxes, fast rising unemployent rates and mortage foreclosure were a heavy burden to overcome. This forced many people to have to move in to Hoovervilles. From 1929 to 1933 over 100,000 bussinesses failed across the country, and in 1933 when Hoover left the office, the unemployement was at 13 million, which was almost 25% of the total workforce.

Some of the Larger Shanty town communites were extremely well organized, having there own Mayor, Sanitary commitee along with many other major commitees. Finally in 1941 when the employment rate started to rise and the US started to get out of its great depression all Shanty towns across the country were destroyed.




 * THE STOCK MARKET CRASH **

The Stock Market Crash that led to the great depression occured in October 1929 on Black Thursday which was the 24th and Black Tuesday which was the 29th.

The main reason that the stock market crashed and why so many people went bankrupt because of it, because in the time it was very popular for investors to invest on margin, Which means they took loans from the bank, and planned to pay them back throught the money that they would gain from the stock market, which until 1929 almost always gave a good return to the invest. However, when the market crashed, these investors lost all of their money and didnt have enough money to repay the banks so they had to file for bankruptcy. This caused many banks to go out of business because they simply had no more money left and people who had assets in these closing banks also lost money. The bankruptcy of these investors left them with no credit and no money, so they were forced to move in with family or friends, and if that was not an option then they became the ones that had to create there own home in the makeshift shanty towns that were nicknamed "Hoovervilles".