Lines of those who were unemployed, homeless and hungry stretched for blocks at many urban “soup kitchens.”
During the Great Depression, home was often a “Hooverville,” the name given to ramshackle tent cities filled with displaced families and homeless individuals.
Residents of a “Hooverville.”
The homeless and the well-to-do getting their news at a St. Paul library reading room circa 1930.
For the homeless, a bed is where you find it, including a public bench in downtown St. Paul circa 1930.
The Depression, which started with the stock market crash of 1929, hits hard in St. Paul. Families are torn apart as men leave to find work elsewhere or simply to reduce the number of mouths to feed. Never have the crowds been larger or the opportunity greater as the Mission responds.
Photos courtesy of the Union Gospel Mission and the Minnesota Historical Society.