USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -These camps came to be called Hoovervilles, after the president. Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper reporter Charles Michelson is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930.

Detailed explanation-2: -"Hooverville” became a common term for shacktowns and homeless encampments during the Great Depression. There were dozens in the state of Washington, hundreds throughout the country, each testifying to the housing crisis that accompanied the employment crisis of the early 1930s.

Detailed explanation-3: -Some unemployed became transients, searching for jobs and food. In Seattle, unemployment was 11% in April 1930, rising to 26% by January 1935. Families doubled up in apartments, others were evicted and built makeshift houses. Groups of these dwellings for the homeless were called Hoovervilles.

Detailed explanation-4: -A “Hooverville” was a shanty town built during the Great Depression by the homeless in the United States. They were named after Herbert Hoover, who was President of the United States during the onset of the Depression and was widely blamed for it.

Detailed explanation-5: -But back in the 1930s, Central Park’s Great Lawn was once a dilapidated shantytown called “Hooverville, ” a place where homeless squatters found refuge during the Great Depression. The park’s first shanty, which was made out of wooden planks, cardboard boxes, and other scrap materials, popped up on October 16th, 1930.