ses and apartments, but they could not just live on the streets either. So the homeless came up with a new way to survive. They built tiny homes made out of whatever they could find. Some common components were boxes made out of wood or cardboard, old car parts, newspapers, and tin pieces. When a large number of these homes were in one area, they came to be called "Hoovervilles." The people placed the blame of their predicament on President Hoover. Americans were becoming very angry and discouraged with their situation. In March of 1930, many Unemployment Councils had formed in the nation's larger cities. The Unemployment Council in New York City held a demonstration in the city's Union Square. Over ten thousand unemployed people showed up, and a huge brawl broke out between the police and them. Things were only becoming worse, yet the President still could not understand the extent and seriousness of the depression. While other citizens were having to survive on almost nothing, he was in the White House living comfortably with plenty of food for his family and himself. By the year 1932, there were more than fourteen million jobless people in the United States. This was equal to one third of all the potential workers in the country. The number may have risen as high as twenty million unemployed, but no one knows for sure. Stocks were worth on the average only eleven percent of the price that they had reached in 1929, and about five thousand banks had shut down, due to the lack of funds. Over all, between the stockholders and the people who had invested their money in banks, seventy-five trillion dollars had been lost by 1932. In several cities across the country, people were breaking into stores and supermarkets, stealing all kinds of food for their families. Many citizens even advocated Communism to restore the economy to what it used to be. The farmers soon started to suffer, also. The selling price for their crops had become less tha...
