Circling The News

During the 1930s there were large concentrations of families living in Shanytowns.

By REECE PASCOE

A pregnant woman has just given birth, but she knows the baby is dead it stopped kicking days ago.

Malnourished kids play with their ribs showing though their shirts. Fathers/husbands are out looking for a job, any job. The women are cleaning the clothes in the river – the same water they drink and the same place they go to the bathroom. These were not the living conditions in concentration camps in Germany or the gulags in Siberia, but in shantytowns (Hoovervilles), even here in sunny Southern California.

After the roaring 20s, the Great Depression hit, leaving many jobless and homeless. Families couldn’t pay rent and were kicked out of their homes with nowhere to go.  Many were penniless after selling their life belongings.

After exiting their homes with only the clothes on their back and sadness, uprooted families came together. They formed little communities, everywhere and anywhere. They were located next to drainage ditches, alongside buildings, by a lake, in a park: they are called shantytowns (Hoovervilles).

What is the difference between Hoovervilles of the 30s and 40s and today’s tent cities (Gavin Ghettos)?

Those shantytowns were named after President Herbert Hoover, who was widely blamed for the depression.  The term Hooversvilles was coined by newspaper reporter Charles Michelson.

Then there were other terms, such as “Hoover blanket” (old newspaper used as blanketing). A “Hoover flag” was an empty pocket turned inside out and “Hoover leather” was cardboard used to line a shoe when the sole wore through. A “Hoover wagon” was an automobile with horses hitched to it, often with the engine removed.

Hoovervilles where not isolated to one area of the country, they popped up from Seattle to LA to New York to St. Louis. All were different, some had mayors, some had houses 20 feet tall, some were by lakes, some houses were made out of brick, and some were in drainage ditches.

Seattle had one of the biggest and longest lasting shantytowns. It lasted for 10 years and is one of the best documented cases. The population at one point was 1,200 and the impromptu town spanned more than nine acres. It had an unofficial mayor. The population consisted of all races but was a majority male. The city made very few requests from the tenets, one was that there be no women and children. The second was that there were some building and sanitation codes, like having designated spots for bathrooms.

Today’s Gavin Ghettos are also outside of San Francisco, but the majority of the makeshift dwellings are here in Southern California. They are all different, some are packs of RVs, some are lines of tents, some are located under freeways, some are next to the nearest outlet so “tenants” can charge their iphones.

One of the biggest differences between today’s occupants and those in the 1930s, was families were forced out of their homes because people lost jobs.

Unemployed Hooverville residents took any available work, such as fruit picking or packing. John Steinbeck wrote about a family who lived in a California Hooverville in his 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Once they got a job and means to pay for themselves and their loved ones, they would move into stable housing out of the Shantytowns.

Today there are “help wanted” signs everywhere. Many living in encampments chose to live on the beach for free, eat breakfast at food banks and take daily snacks from charity groups. I understand that some people today are not living like this by choice, but that is the exception to the rule.

The second big problem today is drugs and alcohol. Back then recreational drugs were unheard of, most of the drugs homeless people are addicted to now were not invented, like meth, crack and many prescription pills.

A third problem is mental illness. About a fifth of the population has a mental illness and about 50 percent of the homeless have a MI.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were asylums for those with mental issues. By the height of institutionalization in 1955 about a half a million people were living in state-run psychiatric facilities, according to a May 2021 Atlantic story (“The Truth about Deinstitutionalization”).

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal provided public works projects and other economic programs to try and end the shantytowns. However, there were many corrupt politicians, so a vast majority of the money never went to those who needed it. And today, I am so glad we don’t have a problem with corruption. I know all the tax dollars are going to those who need it the most.

What created the problem in the 1930s? Was it everyone living outside their means, was it the market crash, was it Calvin Coolidge presidency, was it Herbert Hoover “a chicken for every pot, and a car in every backyard,” was it the Franklin D. Roosevelt New Deal?

What brought an end to the shantytowns? Was it FDR’s New Deal, was it World War II or was it time?  Ask 100 different professionals and get 100 different answers.

Today is similar to the 1930s because we all see the problem, and we all know that our solution is the right one and yours is the wrong one.

Homeless encampments on Venice Beach popped up as the unemployed opted for living on the sand.

Three men illegally blocked the tunnel that provides access to the beach.

Co-president of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness (PPTFH), Sharon Kilbride, was tipped off that the Roosevelt Tunnel, one of the few ways for pedestrians to safely cross Pacific Coast Highway to reach the beach from West Channel Road and Chautauqua had been blocked by several men.

A sign is posted above the tunnel entrance “No Loitering LAMC 63.93”

Needles were found onsite.

She went to the site and found three men who had taken over the tunnel. “There were beds, chairs, tables and carts,” Kilbride said, and noted that various needles had been found and the men appeared to be using meth. “I engaged the group and told them that LAPD was in-route, and they fled the tunnel.”

Kenny, who is unhoused, has worked with the PPTFH before keeping the two tunnels in that area cleared of sand and other items. He is paid for his services. Kilbride said, “Kenny spent an hour with me, cleaning up the mess.”

If residents see a camp inside the tunnel, they are asked to call 911.

“Those fellows were bad news and not interested in any services,” Kilbride said, and added “Kenny cleaned everything up, please thank him when you see him.”

Kenny helps keep the tunnel and stairs swept and clean.

Kenny helped drag the items out of the tunnel so that passage was possible.

The tunnel, built in 1940, was described in the 2013 Los Angeles Historic Resources Inventory as “Pedestrian tunnel that runs underneath Pacific Coast Highway from West Channel Road to the beach; concrete construction, rough stucco finish, concrete steps, metal balustrades and handrails.”

It was noted that: “Rare example of a pedestrian tunnel in Los Angeles; runs underneath Pacific Coast Highway; provides access from the Pacific Palisades commercial area to the beach. Pedestrian tunnels appear to be of local significance only and may not meet significance thresholds for the National or California registers.”

The tunnel (accessed by the railing) allows beachgoers to safely cross under PCH’s six lanes of traffic.