Small Agriculture: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

Facts about Lake County Homesteads

National Agricultural Library

subsistence homesteads

Lake County Homesteads was initiated by the Subsistence Homesteads Division of the Department of the Interior, March 29, 1934. On July 20, 1935, the project was transferred to the Resettlement Administration, and it is now under the supervision of the Farm Security Administration.

This project was established to enable families employed in industries in Lake County and vicinity to own homes outside the confines of industrial cities. While many of these families formerly lived in reasonably good dwellings in the various cities, they were subjected to cramped space and did not have sufficient capital to purchase homes on terms that commercial real estate firms were able to offer. It is expected that truck crops and poultry will help decrease food costs thus enabling the homesteaders to apply a greater share of their income toward retirement of payments on their new homes. It is possible that some of the homesteaders mar/ be able to produce a surplus for sale thus supplementing cash incomes.

Farm Security Administration

n.d.