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Homelessness During The Great Depression Essay

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The Great Depression caused mass homelessness during this time period due to the loss of employment and savings. These people used the ever growing railway system to move from town to town. These people would come to be known as “hobos”. Homelessness during the Great Depression Depression is a big part of history because it was a dangerous time for the hobos because how bad the living condition were. The hobos started because they wanted to see if they could start over. Many hobos began riding the rails to seek employment. Some did this out of necessity, but some made this a way of life.Children felt they were a burden to their families and frequently left home before they were 16. A big reason people became a hobo's was because the property the people had no money and they wanted to start a new life.” there were about two million men were hobos and eight thousand were women and about”(Ganzel). Also there were about two hundred and fifty thousand teenage hoboes were roaming America”(Usy). The living condition was awful for a hobo. Hobos had a little of food off of the train. “Hobos struggled …show more content…

Many hobos had lost legs, arms, and also fingers and some even lost their life. It was so dangerous because they had to jump on the train while in was in motion.” Six thousand five hundred hobos were killed in one year by accidents(Ganzel).” Hobos knew how dangerous it was and they still did it because they needed to. “If the hobos ever got caught by the bulls the bulls would beat them up or even kill them. A bulls job is to keep the hobos from hopping off the trains because it was very dangerous for them but the hobos hopped out of the train before the bull would beat them up(Ganzel)”. “It wasn’t just white boys doing this some were girls and they especially never took the decision to hit the road lightly, for they knew they were stepping into a world filled with danger. It was the same for young

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