FERA operated a wide variety of work-relief projects, including construction, projects for professionals (e.g., writers, artists, actors, and musicians), and production of consumer goods.
Transients and Federal Transient Program The
Great Depression of 1929-1939 caused a devastating epidemic of poverty, hunger, and homelessness for one to two million people at any one time, with a great deal of turnover. As local charities and cities were overwhelmed, the homeless created self-governed shantytowns known as "
Hoovervilles." Built from scrap materials in vacant lots near railroad yards, these poverty-stricken settlements housed hundreds or even thousands of displaced young men, with some women and children. Residents lived in makeshift shacks and begged for food or went to soup kitchens run by charities and churches. Local authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles, but they were tolerated out of necessity. By early 1933 about 1.5 million people were lacking shelter. Because state laws denied aid to non-residents, the
New Deal under President
Franklin Roosevelt created the "Federal Transient Program" (FTP) in May 1933 as part of the new FERA, run by
Harry Hopkins. FTP covered 100% of the local government costs for helping "transients" (those living in a state for less than a year). At its peak, the FTP operated over 600 facilities, providing food, medical care, housing and some jobs to about 1 million people. Most of those served were young, white, native-born working-class men, though women and African Americans were also present. By 1935, the federal government began phasing out direct relief like the FTP in favor of the "Second New Deal". Several factors drove this change. The FTP was so successful at clearing the streets that public urgency regarding homelessness faded. Officials like Harry Hopkins feared direct relief created "dependency" and pulled men away from traditional roles as family breadwinners. The new policy shifted toward public works run by the
WPA and long-term social safety nets especially
Social Security. Shutting down the FTP in 1935 caused a resurgence of "hobo" life and left
Dust Bowl migrants—like those famously depicted in the 1939 novel and film
The Grapes of Wrath—with little federal support. Finally, the homelessness crisis ended between 1939 and 1941, when the booming World War II defense industries hired as many people as fast as possible.
Federal Emergency Relief Administration specifically focused on creating jobs for alleviating poverty. Jobs were more expensive than direct cash payments (called "the dole"), but were psychologically more beneficial to the unemployed, who wanted any sort of job for morale. Other New Deal initiatives that aimed at job creation and wellbeing included the
Civilian Conservation Corps and
Public Works Administration. Additionally, the institution of
Social Security was one of the largest factors that helped to reduce poverty immediately for old people.
Vocational education Workers' education, a form of adult education, emphasized the study of economic and social problems from the workers' perspective. When the FERA created its adult education program in 1933, workers' education classes were included. Between 1933 and 1943, 36 experiment programs in workers' education were launched, 17 of them lasting over ten years. With as many as two thousand teachers employed at one time, officials conservatively estimated that the program reached at least one million workers nationwide until it was ended in World War II. Three distinct phases of a federal workers' education program existed: FERA (1933–1935),
Works Progress Administration (WPA—prior to separation from the other adult education programs, 1935–1939), and WPA Workers' Service Program (1939–1943). FERA and WPA workers' education stimulated educational activities within the labor movement. For example, in Indiana this program was particularly popular among the new, more radical
CIO unions. Federal workers' education activities also encouraged union-university cooperation and laid the foundation for labor education at Indiana University. New Dealers designed the WPA Workers' Service Program as the model for a Federal Labor Extension Service, similar to the existing federal agricultural extension program, but it was never implemented.
Women and
Social Security Administration Ellen Sullivan Woodward was director of women's work for FERA and CWA. During the short lifespan of the CWA, Woodward placed women in such civil works projects as sanitation surveys, highway and park beautification, public building renovation, public records surveys, and museum development. Most were unemployed white collar clerical workers. In July 1934, the FERA established a separate division for professional and nonconstruction projects. Project designers in the division for professional projects faced an enormous challenge in creating effective and meaningful work for unskilled women. In 1935 she became assistant administrator of the Works Progress Administration, where she directed the income-earning projects of some 500,000 women.
Food Poor people lacked enough food in the Depression, and farmers had too much. The mismatch was solved by the
Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC), FERA, and WPA programs which aimed to reduce farm surpluses by government purchase and then redistribution of food to the needy. Three methods of distribution were employed with varying success: direct distribution,
Food Stamps, and
school lunches. ==State and local studies==