Hoovervilles

Cultural  

1. The encampments of the poor and homeless that sprang up during the Great Depression. They were named with ironic intent after President Herbert Hoover, who was in office when the depression started.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Hoovervilles

Thirty years later, a prominent shack town, one of a few Hoovervilles, held up to 1,500 people south of what is now Pioneer Square next to the town’s main garbage dump.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2022

People who lost their homes moved to "Hoovervilles," shacks made from scrap wood and metal.

From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2021

Homeless encampments — modern-day Hoovervilles — are steadily spreading across the vast sprawl of Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2021

This was when the United States was suffering the worst throes of the Depression, with unemployment cresting at twenty-five per cent and Hoovervilles springing up across the country.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 12, 2018

A lot of squatter towns, Hoovervilles, was built on the tracks, I guess ’cause people got around by hopping the rails.

From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson