Housing the Homeless

by Erickson,Jon

• ISBN13: 9781412847681
• ISBN10: 1412847680
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-04-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Homelessness has become a lasting issue of vital social concern. As the number of the homeless has grown, the complexity of the issue has become increasingly clear to researchers and private and public service providers. The plight of the homeless raises many ethical, anthropological, political, sociological, and public health questions. The most serious and perplexing of these questions is what steps private, charitable, and public organizations can take to alleviate and eventually solve the problem. The concept of homelessness is difficult to define and measure. Generally, persons are thought to be homeless if they have no permanent residence and seek security, rest, and protection from the elements. The homeless typically live in areas that are not designed to be shelters (e.g., parks, bus terminals, under bridges, in cars), occupy structures without permission (e.g., squatters), or are provided emergency shelter by a public or private agency. Some definitions of homelessness include persons living on a short-term basis in single-room-occupancy hotels or motels, or temporarily residing in social or health-service facilities without a permanent address. Housing the Homeless is a collection of case studies that bring together a variety of perspectives to help develop a clear understanding of the homelessness problem. The editors include information on the background and politics of the problem and descriptions of the current homeless population. The book concludes with a resource section, which highlights governmental policies and programs established to deal with the problem of homelessness.

Author Biography

JonErickson is coordinator of the Environmental Management option in the Master of Public Administration program at Kean University and former research associate at the Center for Urban Policy Research, part of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Policy Research at Rutgers University. Most recently, he helped prepare a report on "Sustainability as Partner to Economic Regeneration: The Impact Assessment of the New Jersey State Plan." Charles Wilhelm served as project coordinator at the Capital Budget Homeless Housing Program in New York in the 1980s.

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xv
About the Contributors	p. xvii
IntroductionJon Erickson	p. xix
Introduction to the Transaction Edition	p. xxxix
Images of the Homeless
Homeless in America	p. 3
Street People	p. 17
New York's Homeless Families	p. 26
Diary of a Homeless Man	p. 37
Time in the Streets	p. 53
Background and Politics
The Life of the Homeless	p. 73
The Homeless of New York	p. 82
The Politics of Displacement: Sinking Into Homelessness	p. 106
The Emergence of the Homeless as a Public Problem	p. 113
The Importance of Numbers
The Extent of Homelessness in America: A Report to the Secretary on the Homeless and Emergency Shelters U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development	p. 127
A Strategy for Helping America's Homeless	p. 144
Testimony on A Report to the Secretary on the Homeless and Emergency Shelters	p. 150
Testimony on A Report to the Secretary on the Homeless and Emergency Shelters	p. 156
Who Are the Homeless and Why?
Skid Row as an Urban Neighborhood, 1880-1960	p. 167
An Introduction to Chicago's Skid Rows Survey Results	p. 190
A Descriptive Portrait of the S.R.O. World	p. 223
Gentrification and Homelessness: The Single Room Occupant and the Inner City Revival	p. 241
The Homelessness Problem	p. 253
Deinstitutionalization and the Homeless Mentally III	p. 262
The Plight of Homeless Women	p. 279
Shelters for Battered Women: A Temporary Escape From Danger or the First Step Toward Divorce?	p. 295
Solutions to the Problem
Litigation in Advocacy for the Homeless: The Case of New York City	p. 303
Federal Housing Programs and Their Impact on Homelessness	p. 315
A Model of Services to Homeless Families in Shelters	p. 322
Homelessness: A Comprehensive Policy Approach	p. 335
Resources
New Jersey Housing Assistance Program for the Homeless: Demonstration Program Design New Jersey Department of Community Affairs	p. 349
City of Chicago Model Zoning, Building, and Shelter Standards Task Force on Emergency Shelter	p. 355
Comparative Shelter Construction and Operation Cost Estimates	p. 363
Community Relations Strategies	p. 376
Program Design and Management U.S. Department of Health and Human Services	p. 389
Summary of Major Federal Programs Assisting the Homeless U.S. General Accounting Office	p. 409
Bibliography	p. 413
Index	p. 421
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