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The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man

Chapter 14: FOOTNOTES:
By Nels Anderson
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Sociology

About This Book

A field-based sociological study of homeless migratory men that draws on participant observation and interviews to describe their daily strategies, itinerant labor patterns, and informal economies. It charts the social order of transient communities—norms, mutual aid, leadership, and sources of conflict—and examines interactions with employers, charities, and municipal agencies. The analysis links environmental and economic pressures to patterns of mobility and marginality and outlines practical considerations for social services and urban policy responses.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] Mrs. Solenberger’s figures of more than a decade ago put the number of the various types of homeless men in this city at 40,000-60,000:

“No exact census of the total number of homeless men of various types in the lodging-house districts of Chicago has been taken, but 40,000 is considered a conservative estimate by several careful students of the question who are closely in touch with local conditions. This number is somewhat increased at election times and very greatly increased when word goes out, as it did during the winter of 1907-8, that relief funds were being collected and free lodgings and food would be furnished to the unemployed. In December, January, February, and March of that winter all private lodging-houses were filled to overflowing, and the Municipal Lodging House, its annex, and two other houses which it operated gave a total of 79,411 lodgings to homeless men as compared with 6,930 for the same months of the winter before, an increase of 72,481. The Health Department, which took charge of the municipal lodging-houses and made a careful study of local conditions during the winter of 1907-8, estimated the number of homeless men then in Chicago to be probably not less than 60,000.”—One Thousand Homeless Men, p. 9, n.

Nearly if not quite one-fifth of the 700 hotels in Chicago cater to the migratory and casual worker. The 63 hotels visited by investigators in this study had a total capacity for the accommodation of 15,000 men. On the basis of these figures, it seems safe to put the total capacity of the hotels in Hobohemian areas at 25,000-30,000. A like number of men are probably provided for in nearby boarding- and lodging-houses. Thousands of other men sleep at the docks, in engine rooms, in vacant houses, in flophouses, or in summer in the parks.

The returns of the 1920 United States census show that in the three wards of the city in which Hobohemian areas are located there are 28,105 more male than female residents. This figure indicates that the so-called “home guard” numbers about 30,000, the summer population of Hobohemia.

The Jewish Bureau of Social Service estimates that the number of homeless men in Chicago at any one time in the winter of 1921-22 was 120,000. This figure, which seems high when compared with estimates arrived at by other methods of calculation, assumes that the proportion of homeless men for the city is the same as that for the Jewish community.