Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. Arlene Chewning stands in the kitchen of a recently completed homestead built as part of a Federal homesteads program, probably one of the 50 that had just been completed in El Monte (she also appears in front of an El Monte homestead in a photograph published with the referenced newspaper article). Chewning was secretary to Ross H Gast, project manager for the Federal homesteads. The Subsistence Homesteads Division of the US Department of the Interior (DSH or SHD) was a New Deal agency that was intended to give safe residences to urban poor in small plots of land that would allow them to sustain themselves. Unlike subsistence farming, subsistence homesteading is based on a family member or members having part-time, paid employment. Related to the article, "Fifty El Monte Homes Await Rurban Group," Los Angeles Times, 29 Jul. 1935: 14. Text from negative sleeve: 1657. Mrs. Arline Chewning of El Monte. Federal project of subsistence homes. 7-26-35. [stamped:] Aug 22 1935. Handwritten on negative: Mrs. Arline Chewning
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