Friday, March 27, 2009

Modern-Day Hoovervilles

The New York Times has an article and slideshow on the new shanty towns:

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Tina Garland, an out-of-work truck driver, in the kitchen area of the tent she shares with her husband in Sacramento. Homeless enclaves have grown in places such as Nashville, Olympia, Wash., and St. Petersburg, Fla., but the situation in Sacramento has received extra attention following a visit from Oprah Winfrey.

Be sure to read the whole thing, here.

Many of the shanty-dwellers are in Fresno, where I lived from 1989 to 1992. Unemployment is there is generally twice the national average. That's why I don't think the notion of "Hoovervilles" is media propaganda. You get the "Grapes of Wrath" feeling living up there for a while, even during boom times.

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