The Great Depression in the 1930s led to the development of
homeless settlements in the country's major cities—or
"Hoovervilles," an allusion to the then U.S. President Herbert
Hoover. Living in tents and shacks, these communities rapidly
developed In New York City, especially in Central Park's then
empty reservoir and Riverside Park, but disappeared along with
the crisis. During the next half century the homeless population
encompassed a narrow band of society, its numbers fluctuating as
the economy cycled. Various studies across the country painted a
similar portrait of the homeless. Out-of-work white males, often
plagued by ill health, alcohol or drug addictions, made up for
the greatest part of this socially quarantined community. A
large majority was still confined to "skid rows" and the Bowery
remained New York's homeless hub, where men would be found
sleeping in the streets, the subway or tiny, windowless,
90-cents-a-night hotel rooms. Until the decriminalization of
public drunkenness in 1966, police s