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its policy and decided to do what it could to serve both locals and wanderers, although the dependent non-residents were to remain in the city no longer than forty-eight hours.
By early 1931, the transient problem had become the “bane of existence” for local relief organizations. The “average” Lynchburg transient was a white male out of work because of the depression. Most requested food and police- department lodging. Car transients, usually families, were also becoming
a burden, although they were the objects of great concern. Charitable organizations treated them more kindly than single wanderers, providing five gallons of fuel, oil, and food for their journey.
Unintended Consequences
As the depression deepened, many beggars wandered Lynchburg’s streets. Most were transients looking for
money, a free meal, or both. The Associated Charities urged citizens to avoid indiscriminate giving and send
the mendicants to its office where individuals would be investigated. It hoped that this process would reduce fraud. To encourage citizens to comply with its request, the organization often supplied the local media with stories
of citizens duped by “professional” wanderers. One resident gave a beggar fifty cents for a place to sleep and later the same day saw him purchasing a movie ticket, The News reported. The Associated Charities also appealed to citizens’ emotions, stressing the need
to take care of Lynchburg’s own first. “Do not give anything but food at
your doors,” it urged. “The organized agencies will care for beggars. Needs in Lynchburg are greater today than they have ever been in the history of the city. Why give to or encourage professional beggars when your dollar could be helping some needy child?” As in many other localities across the nation, when resources were stretched to the breaking point, the outsider became the enemy. This was especially the case in Lynchburg since word-of-mouth tips shared among transients touted the Seven Hills as “a
profitable city in which to beg.”
In late 1932 City Manager R. W. B. Hart held a conference with Municipal
Court Judge Joseph P. McCarron and the city’s Director of Public Safety Richard F. Wagner to devise a way to rid Lynchburg of its transient problem. The meeting was necessary because, as The News reported, “Recently, hundreds of transients have been stopping in Lynchburg, begging on the streets and in other ways molesting people.” Indeed, the Salvation Army
Municipal leaders consented to provide one night’s lodging at police headquarters to hobos who sought refuge there, but any found in Lynchburg the following day would be prosecuted under the city’s vagrancy laws and sentenced to hard labor at the City Farm. Officials hoped that news would quickly spread through “trampdom” that Lynchburg was no longer a salutary place to stop. The new policy had unintended consequences. Police found that many of the wanderers
A worker from Lynchburg, Virginia, who arrived in town today, sleeping in his car. Tomorrow he will go to work, and get a place to live when he has time to find
it. He is a steamfitter. Radford, Virginia, December, 1940.
alone provided 1,052 persons with
shelter during the course of the year.
The conferees found themselves with a policy dilemma: although they wanted to rid the city of transients and needed to make Lynchburg an undesirable stopover, arresting the transients was not the answer because that action would result in overcrowding at the city jail. If the police turned the transients away, they would find alternate places to sleep, bothering homeowners and fostering crime.
Tempered by a tough stance against vagrancy, humanitarianism prevailed.
were not professional hobos, but educated men “of good character” who welcomed an opportunity to work on the City Farm because they also received food and shelter there.
The Federal Transient Bureau
As the effects of economic instabil-
ity worsened and the nation looked to Franklin D. Roosevelt for his promised “new deal,” Washington helped relieve Lynchburg of its transient problem.
On December 18, 1933, the Federal Transient Bureau (an arm of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration) began caring for homeless men who hailed from outside the Hill City. The federal govern- ment, through a partnership with the state and locality, accommodated men in a structure that was formerly a business
SPRING/SUMMER 2008 
As the depression deepened, many beggars wandered Lynchburg’s streets. Most were transients looking for money, a free meal, or both.
John Vachon, 1914–1975, photographer, courtesy of LOC.gov