travelin:

Welcome to Hoboken, New Jersey, a city of around 40,000 people with around 5,000 Hobos circulating throughout the city at any one time. This rampant homelessness has been present in the city since it’s founding in the late 1600’s.

The term Hobo was coined when a man without residence became well known in the metropolitan New York area. When asked from wence he had came he then replied, Hoboken. Then it spread that he was a Hobo from Hoboken. It then became a widely used term to describe the homeless. According to a local custom since 1790, it is regarded as a norm to kill a hobo upon entering the city limits. This is where the town gets its name, shortening what was once called “Hobo Killing On-The-Green” to the familiar “Hoboken”.