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Why did President Herbert Hoover fail to set up government programs to help the homeless?

President Herbert Hoover, who presided over the United States during the leanest years of the Great Depression, was kind of a scapegoat for the whole decade.  Tens of thousands of homeless Americans built makeshift shelters in shantytowns.  These desperate communities came to be called Hoovervilles in a jab at the sitting president.  The reason that people were so unhappy about Hoover as president is that they did not feel he was doing enough with the power of the federal government to relieve their suffering.  In defense of Hoover, the federal government had never taken the role of a provider of benefits for the population.  The government's position was that charities and other philanthropic organizations should handle the plight of the poor.  The problem was that the Great Depression was so sever that charities could do very little to help.  Hoover believed wholeheartedly that Americans should help one another out of these problems and should be accountable for themselves and their families.  He felt that this was the quickest way to recovery.  

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