Life for the Migrant
Dust Bowl migrants had little food, shelter, or comfort. Some growers allowed workers to stay rent-free in labor camps. Others provided cabins or one-room shacks. Still others offered only a patch of muddy ground to place a tent. The majority of the newcomers found shelter where they could. Hundreds lived along irrigation ditches or in empty fields near the large ranches.
Sanitation was poor. In rainy periods, outhouses flooded. This contaminated the drinking water. The years 1936 and 1937 represented the peak migration years. With more people living in desperate conditions, disease spread. Typhoid, smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria, and pneumonia were widespread. Residents died from health problems, starvation, and disease. In 1937, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) built 10 federal camps that provided decent housing in migratory labor camps, but they did not meet the overwhelming need for migrant housing.
“Being American citizens [the white transients] are going to demand the so-called American standards of living.”
Dr. George Clements, U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education and Labor Hearings, c.1935
