Poverty, homelessness, and homelessness was a common theme during the Great Depression. When 40% of banks across the country failed, Americans lost over $140 billions dollars in savings. This meant that they could no longer afford to pay for their housing and had to live in small "towns" of makeshift homes make of scarp metal and debris. These communities were called Hoovervilles. The irony behind these communities is in the name. President Hoover promised prosperity for Americans, yet his philosophies of laissez faire and "rugged individualism" got him just the opposite. Americans were indirectly blaming Hoover for the conditions they were living in because he wasn't helping them improve their financial situation by naming these groups of barely-stable houses after him.
These Hoovervilles were all over the country in large cities like Seattle, Sacramento, and Manhattan, with millions of people inhabiting them nationwide as there was so much poverty. The amount of people living in Hoovervilles ranged from over a hundred, to thousandths in larger cities like Washington D.C., living conditions were rough in each one. Since every one was living in such close quarters, sickness was not uncommon. There was barely any healthcare services for people.
When President Franklin Roosevelt was elected into office, he proposed the New Deal, which had programs and services that would help bring down the number of homeless Americans, give them financial support to get safer, healthier houses, and pay for food. The New Deal also reduced the percentage of unemployment and gave jobs to those who were unemployed during the Great Depression.
During the Great Depression, people who were unemployed and had no financial support could not afford adequate housing and had to build makeshift homes. The juxtaposition of this photo is that there is a city in the background of the photo with factories and businesses, and poverty stricken families before it. This shows how the city used to be a thriving and prosperous place, but was reduced to places like Hoovervilles.
This iconic photo was taken in a Hooverville, depicting a very distressed, anxious mother and her scared children. It shows the human side of the Great Depression, not just the statistics of unemployment. The Depression affected everyone, including children. 50% of children lived in hunger, with no medical care for them if they got sick.