Subsistence Homesteads: The New Deal’s Affordable Housing Beta Test
During the Great Depression, a lot of folks were “down on their luck.” Many hardworking, respectable people found themselves with limited working hours or, even worse, with zero probability of obtaining gainful employment in their local area.
Upon taking office in March 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (D-New York) administration attempted to address the deprivation and desperation being felt by tens of millions of Americans. Some of the resulting government programs, such as the Work Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps, focused on putting those with no prospects directly on the federal payroll. Others provided “relief” such as welfare payments and food handouts.
Somewhat distinct from these well known programs was the Division of Subsistence Homesteads or DSH within the Department of the Interior. It was essentially a “back to the land” movement funded by a $25 million Congressional appropriation in 1933 ($578 million in 2023 dollars).¹
The general idea was to provide a homeownership opportunity, complete with enough land for individual and/or communal food production to people who could work and make payments but did not have sufficient income to qualify for a bank loan. The program was targeted at families making less than $1,200 per year ($27,000 in 2023 dollars) who were willing to pay off a $3,000 homestead ($67,000 in 2023 dollars), with interest, at a monthly payment of $12.65 ($280 in 2023 dollars) over 30 years. It should be noted these were planning numbers and did not reflect the reality at every homestead site.²
Of course, back to the land movements had been tried in America before the Great Depression and were certainly tried afterwards. From utopian societies in the 19th Century to hippie communes in the 1960’s and 70’s, dreamers have always believed that it is possible for people with good intentions to support themselves with a plot of land and their own hard work.
The DSH projects differed from those of the utopians and hippies, and not just because residents were expected to make payments and had a path to ownership. Homesteaders were supposed to obtain part-time or seasonal jobs outside their homesteads to stay current on their payments and use food they grew only to fill gaps on their dinner tables.³
There was another major difference between DSH homesteads and most private back-to-the-land movements — potential homesteaders had to pass strict background checks. These could include a review of employment history, financial documentation, and the statements of multiple references.
For at least one settlement, applicants had to write an essay about why they wanted to live there. With far more applicants than available homesteads, it was important to screen out those who were unlikely to succeed individually or contribute to the mission of the community which they would have to build and maintain.⁴
Now, let’s take a look at a couple of homestead projects to see how the program played out.
The Jersey Homesteads in Monmouth County, New Jersey, were backed by none other than Albert Einstein and initially settled by locally prominent artists such as Ben Shahn, who painted a now-famous mural on the wall of the elementary school. The plan was for unemployed New York City garment workers to earn income through a cooperative farm and garment factory, along with a few retail outlets. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors (e.g., housing construction delays, expecting needle trade workers to quickly take to farming, etc.) the farm and factory failed along with a clothing store by 1940.⁵ ⁶
In 2012, although a number of the original houses with their distinctive flat roofs remained, The Borough of Roosevelt (on the site of the former Jersey Homesteads) had no stores, or even a stoplight. In 2017, Roosevelt was temporarily left without a functioning municipal government when the mayor and some council members resigned as the result of infighting among Democratic Party factions. By 2021, Roosevelt Elementary School was in danger of closing due to low enrollment, thus endangering Shahn’s mural (appraised in the millions at that time).⁷ ⁸ ⁹
Another homestead project was Dalworthington Gardens, Texas named after Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington. Unlike Roosevelt, NJ, Dalworthington Gardens (as it is incorporated today) does have stores and stoplights.
In fact, Green’s Produce and Plants, which is believed to be its oldest continuously operating business harkens back to the homestead days, in concept at least. According to Green’s website, it began in 1969 when its owner purchased produce from local farms. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to imagine some of those “farms” were actually the yards of, by then, late-middle aged original homesteaders.¹⁰
It’s an understatement to say that not much seems to happen in Dalworthington Gardens. Maybe that’s to be expected for a city which mostly consists of attractive residential properties and a population of just 2,200. Type “Dalworthington Gardens” in The New York Times search engine, and the first article that comes up is an Associated Press story from March 22, 1936:
HOMESTEAD FRAUD CHARGED IN TEXAS; Nine Indicted at Fort Worth for Using Inferior Materials in Federal Project
Fraud is a risk in any government program, and the subsistence homesteads were no exception.
Despite experiencing many issues over the last 80 years, Roosevelt, NJ is not a total failure. Its artists flourished, and many of their children remember the community as a kind of paradise.¹¹
For its part, Dalworthington Gardens, TX seems like a great place to live if you like peace and quiet. At least, that’s how it looked to me when I visited on a weekend afternoon.
So, why don’t you hear much, if anything about subsistence homesteads today?
First off, the program was just a pilot. In 1935, the legal mandate for DSH expired. Responsibility for the subsistence homesteads themselves was shuffled around the federal bureaucracy for the next couple of years until the concept was scrapped. In total, projects initiated by DSH and later completed resulted in 34 subsistence homestead communities containing 3,304 housing units. This is not many, especially considering the coast-to-coast nature of the program.¹²
Secondly, Depression-era America essentially ceased to exist after 1945. The neighborhood I grew up in was created in the 1950’s by clearing an orchard. Everybody shopped at supermarkets so efficient there was no way vegetables from a hobby-type garden could be cost-competitive with store-bought once the value of one’s time was considered. Society had transformed so completely that I had no idea a homestead community was located less than 10 miles away.
Post-War America’s steady employment offered an opportunity for homeownership that programs such as the subsistence homesteads could only attempt to simulate. Millions of workers were able to afford a house in the suburbs on one income, and their families could even plant a garden if they wanted.
References
¹ https://www.nal.usda.gov/collections/stories/subsistence-homesteads, retrieved 10/22/2023. Inflation-adjusted dollars estimated using the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator.
² Division of Subsistence Homesteads, Federal Subsistence Homesteads Corporation. A Homestead and Hope. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1935. p. 6.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Leinweber, Anna. Eleanor Roosevelt and Dalworthington Gardens, Texas: How a Northern First Lady Sought To Salvage the South. Department of History, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, 2016. p. 9.
⁵ https://www.nj.com/news/g66l-2019/02/8bdfa904303210/albert-einstein-helped-form-a-town-in-nj-where-most-of-the-houses-look-exactly-alike.html, retrieved 10/22/2023.
⁶ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roosevelt,_New_Jersey, retrieved 10/22/23.
⁷ Ibid.
⁸ https://www.npr.org/2012/09/23/161494490/new-deal-town-turns-75-utopian-ideals-long-gone, retrieved 10/22/2023.
⁹ https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/historic-great-depression-era-mural-faces-uncertainty-as-questions-raised-about-future-of-n-j-school-it-calls-home/, retrieved 10/22/2023.
¹⁰ Leinweber, p. 22.
¹¹ Wallner, Susan (producer). Dreaming of Utopia: Roosevelt, New Jersey at Morven Museum & Garden. New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Stockton University. https://youtu.be/uQZBrZUG1oQ?si=fKUxU9qYuUt5RARh
¹² https://web.archive.org/web/20160303214424/http://newdeallegacy.org/table_communities.html, retrieved 10/22/2023.
Additional reference:
Carriker, Robert. Urban Farming in the West: A New Deal Experiment in Subsistence Homesteads. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, 2010.
