The Great Depression
October 24, 1929, known as “Black Thursday,” began the stock market crash that wiped out 90% of all stock values in twenty days. By 1933, 50% of all banks were closed, and 15 million people lost their jobs.
On May 9, 1934, a two-day dust storm removed 5,400 tons of topsoil in the Great Plains, causing 4.5 million people to become homeless.
In 1939, John Steinbeck wrote “The Grapes of Wrath,” telling the story of a mass movement from the Great Plains to California as families sought stable work. This helped solidify the American consciousness that work was the solution to homelessness.
World War II
The USA entered World War II on December 8, 1941. The war put the United States back to work and nearly eliminated the homelessness of the 1930s. Employment rates remained high after the war, causing homelessness and skid-row areas to shrink to a fraction of the 1930s experience, reinforcing the work narrative. But neither phenomenon disappeared entirely.
Vanishing Homelessness
Bogue reported that in Chicago, only a few homeless men, about 100, lived out on the streets, sleeping in doorways, under bridges, and in other "sheltered" places. Searching the streets, hotels, and boarding houses of Philadelphia's Skid-Row area in 1960, Blumberg found only 64 persons sleeping in the streets.”
The Team at Hand Up Housing
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