To live in a Hooverville it would have been very difficult. Shelters that were extremely uncomfortable and very cold to live in especially during the nights. But also live in the same clothing for such a long time and having no money to be able to pay for clothing, nor would you really be able to pay for food and ration it out to either other people or your family. But, it would be very very filthy.
The description of the neighborhood, it describes a cold, worn-down, neighborhood, that could symbolize a prison, based on the first sentence that had to do with setting people free. The neighborhood is decribed as stony and "imperturbable" so it could also mean that the school symbolizes freedom and the neighborhood means imprisonment, or capture. Of course, this is only based off f what I have just read, I haven't actually ever read the book.
