Automobile ‘Bidenvilles’ Are the New Shantytowns Amid US Housing Affordability Crisis

A "Hooverville" stood on the waterfront of Seattle during the Great Depression in 1933. Grim collections of shacks on vacant lots were cruelly called Hoovervilles after then-President Herbert Hoover. Hoovervilles are now on the verge of being replicated under President Joe Biden. Seattle Municipal Archives, Public Domain

Commentary

When people couldn’t afford housing during the Great Depression, they built shantytowns from scrap construction supplies and named them “Hoovervilles,” after President Herbert Hoover. Today, Americans increasingly live out of their cars because they can’t afford housing. If history is any guide, will parking lots full of Americans soon be known as “Bidenvilles”?