Homeless Living During The Great Depression

“At one point in the Depression, the cupboard was literally bearing of money.” What effect did the Great Depression have on the people who lived through it? The jobs they had, how they had to use their money, and the help they had to get.

While the Great Depression plagued the country in the 1930’s, a mysterious group of people--known as Gypsies or Roma--lurked in the rural areas of America. Present across most of the United States at the time, Gypsies were peculiar people with very different ways of life than most others. The Gypsies were nomadic, showing up in a town for awhile, and leaving whenever they felt necessary. Gypsies were not uncommon in the 1930s, yet most people remained suspicious of them due to their mysterious and conniving ways. Gypsies would take up a handful of different self-employed and unique occupations to survive.

The Great Depression went from 1929 to 1939. It was a very long and difficult time. Everybody was affected. It was a long and difficult time where everybody was affected. Nobody had jobs so kids didn’t have the money to go to school.

The unexpected became American's nightmare with a drastic change in the wealth distribution. The market crash affected millions of Americans. From Company owners to their factories and their employees. Breadwinners now unable to support their family must stand in line for government assistance. Not to forget the emotional aspect of this unfortunate event some individuals would commit suicide so that their family could live off their life insurance. The great depression was defiantly a bitter time in

It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world, sparking fundamental changes in economic institutions, macroeconomic policy, and economic theory. Although it originated in the United States, the Great Depression caused drastic declines in output, severe unemployment, and acute deflation in almost every country of the world. Its social and cultural effects were no less staggering, especially in the United States, where the Great Depression represented the harshest adversity faced by Americans since the Civil War. The most devastating impact of the Great Depression was human suffering. In a short period of time, world output and standards of living dropped precipitously. As much as one-fourth of the labor force in industrialized countries was unable to find work in the early 1930s. the 1930s will always summon up images of breadlines, apple sellers on street corners, shuttered factories, rural poverty, and so-called Hoovervilles, where homeless families sought refuge in shelters cobbled together from salvaged wood, cardboard, and tin. It was a time when thousands of teens became drifters; many marriages were postponed and engagements were interminable; birth rates declined; and children grew up quickly, often taking on adult responsibilities if not the role of comforter to their despondent parents. It was a time when the

It is hard to imagine life without simple things such as a house, entertainment, or even food. Yet these things were scarce as a result of the downward economic spiral called the Great Depression. People went without many resources, going hungry and homeless. The struggle became worsened, to where a new president vowed to make changes about the Depression. Americans were negatively impacted during this time, losing jobs, possessions, money, and a home, leaving many with nothing.

The study of Thomas Minehan revealed that about two hundred and fifty thousand youth were homeless in the early years of the Great Depression. Some left their homes because they felt they were a burden to their families and some fled homes shattered by the unemployment and poverty. Once on the road, they confronted danger, cold, hunger, loneliness, and humiliation. Jobless and homeless, they begged for food and slept in hobo camps as they crossed the country in search of jobs opportunity. They suffered diseases due to lack of cleanliness, contagion and infection. Many of them were malnourished because sometimes days went by without anything to eat. In addition, the study revealed the poor condition of thousands of kids live because of the

The 1920s seemed to promise a future of a new and wonderful way of life for America and its citizens . Modern science, evolving cultural norms, industrialization, and even jazz music heralded exciting opportunities and a future that only pointed up toward a better life. However, cracks in the facade started to show, and beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 the wealth of the country, and with it the hopes and expectations of its people, began to slip away. The Great Depression left a quarter of the population unemployed and much of the rest destitute and uncertain of what the future held. Wealth vanished, people took their money out of banks, and plans were put on hold. The most significant way in which the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives was through poverty because it tore relationships apart and damaged the spirit of society while unexpectedly bringing families together in unity.

The Great Depression was extremely devastating to the Americans because the stock market crashed, which caused the wealthy and poor to become similar. On October 24, 1929; Black Tuesday; stockholders lost billions of dollars, banks began to fail, and unemployment increased rapidly. Furthermore, banks were failing because deposits in the bank was uninsured to where people lost their savings completely and banks that were open made life for people stricter based on how they communicated business. Moreover, many couples did not participate in being married during the Great Depression because of the low income being brought in and many people did not have children during this time.

Many americans were affected by the crash because they depended on the stock market. The banks suddenly started to fail also, after the stock market crashed. Some banks started to shut down. The industrial production dropped by half. The farmers could not sell any crops because the prices had to increase. In 1930, the first banking panics began. President Hoover wanted support the falling industry and banks. He tried hard to make loans and help the country. The crash of the stock market was only the beginning of the great depression. Banks were forced to closed, causing clients to lose money and income, making them have a hard time. They had to figure out how to keep up with their incomes and wages. How to help out their family. They lost their jobs and that made it difficult for them to pay their needs. While the jobs became more scarce, unemployment was abundant. The great depression also cause other types of people to become unemployed.

I know that during the Great Depression, jobs were very hard to find. If you were lucky enough to get a job, it would most likely be a low paying job with an income that would be incredibly hard to raise a family on. As the economic problems of the Great Depression increased, companies could no longer afford to pay employees their previous wages. This led to thousands of Americans being laid off from work at all.

The Great Depression caused families in many areas to endure hardships. The unemployment rate was at 25% in 1929, many men, women, and even some children begged and searched for jobs everyday, some even hopped on trains in hope that they would find a job. Many people, mainly men were hostile with women because they found that women could find a job easier than a man, although women were also going through the same hardships. Not only was unemployment part of the suffering people went through, many people while jobless lived in shacks made of whatever they could find out of the garbage or debris from roads. Many people who had families made houses out of crates or rusted out car bodies, some men would show up at homeless shelters while searching

The 1930s are remembered as hard times for many American families. With the crash of the stock market many families from all over suffered to survive on very little. Farmers found it hard to grow crops and earn money from them. City families struggled to live on nothing and were without jobs. Hobos were homeless people who traveled the railroads illegally to find jobs. Farm families, city families, and hobos each had to find ways to live and survive during The Great Depression.

The Great Depression hit the whole world pretty hard, nobody really expected it, most people say it was because of the stock market crash. There were many people who were unemployed during these times and everything was tough for most people. There were people who lived in “Hoovervilles” which were basically tents, unemployed men who were waiting outside for free food, and people waiting outside to get as much money out of the bank as possible.

Family pressure during the great depression was unlike any the U.S. has ever seen. Everything about families changed in the 1930s. Couples during the depression delayed marriage, and at the same time the divorce rates dropped because people could not afford to pay for two households. Birthrates also dropped and for the first time in American history below the replacement level. Income was closed to none in all families; regular income had dropped by 35% just in the years Hoover was in office. Families had a lot of stress; some pulled together and made do with what they had others pushed away. People turned to who ever they had, family, friends, and after all else the government. Although there were rich people in the depression as well