The Banfield Expressway plowed through Sullivan’s Gulch in the 1950s, displacing the few holdouts in what had been one of the largest homeless encampments in Portland. The “Hoovervilles” were named for President Herbert Hoover, who presided over the country’s descent into the Great Depression. By 1933, the northeast “Shantytown” had a population of 333 living in 131 shacks made from scrap wood, car parts, corrugated tin and cardboard boxes.
