Americ The Great Depression - 2977 Words

America would suffer from one of the worst financial disasters in history after the stock market crash of 1929. A period in history commonly referred to as The Great Depression (1929-1939) would take the workforce by storm. The country’s unemployment rate would reach a record high leaving millions of Americans out of work or laid off by the mid 1930s (Smiley, 2014). â€Å"The Great Depression is often called a â€Å"defining moment† in the twentieth-century history of the United States. Its most lasting effect was a transformation of the role of the federal government in the economy† (Smiley, 2014). As a result, families were unable to repay debts such as farm loans and mortgages leaving financial institutions in the red and failing to recover.†¦show more content†¦This verdict was hammered home by the well-publicized demolition in 1972 of the Pruitt– Igoe project in St. Louis† (Massey Kanaiaupuni, 1993). Although most politicians viewed l arge housing complexes (projects) as a social destruction it did help to recreate new strategies for improving the housing program. America’s most impoverished populations were still struggling to maintain decent housing at an affordable rate. This dilemma prompted the federal government to seek new alternatives to help aid low-income families. â€Å"Federal support for housing since, skimpy as it is, has largely been in the form of â€Å"Section 8† vouchers and dispersed, low-density, mixed housing. The actual number of public housing units has shrunk in recent decades† (Massey Kanaiaupuni, 1993). According to the article, â€Å"it was a response to the post-war housing shortage and too many social scientists’ view at the time that poor housing itself – crowded, dilapidated quarters contributed to social dysfunction† (Massey Kanaiaupuni, 1993). The immediate need to accommodate the needy seemed to do more harm than good during the early stages of development. Politician’s immediate reaction was to fix the problem by housing multiple families and individuals in already impoverished locations and massive projects only seem to created new