Housing the Homeless

by Jon Erickson, Charles Wilhelm

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351514927
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/12/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	478
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Charles Wilhelm, Jon Erickson

Table of Contents

List of Exhibits, Acknowledgments, About the Contributors, Introduction, Introduction to the Transaction Edition, I. Images of the Homeless, 11. Background and Politics, Ill. The Importance of Numbers, IV. Who Are the Homeless and Why?, V. Solutions to the Problem, VI. Resources, Bibliography, Index

Editorial Reviews

Housing the Homeless is the first major collection of key research and programmatic articles to appear on the topic . . . [It] clearly stands as a central reference for those involved in homelessness research or policy-making, and is of fundamental importance to anyone wishing to initiate such endeavors. It should also be useful in both graduate and undergraduate human geography and urban planning curricular, particularly for social geography and human-services planning courses.” —Jennifer R. Wolch, Professional Geographer “In spite of its title, this volume is really a portrait of what we have not done to house the homeless. It does contain, however, enough material to fashion a liberal remedy. We must first recognize the heterogeneity of the homeless population. While the stereotypical white-male alcoholic is a reality, so too is the unemployed man or woman who is unable to find affordable housing in our “revitalized” downtowns. The homeless are a cross-section of our underclass, and as such cannot be separated from poverty in general. To do so means we will continue to develop policies which treat symptoms (providing shelters), rather than causes (providing full employment).” —John Paul Jones III, Growth and Change “[T]he impressive array of research found within . . . amply illustrates, as advocates already know, that what prevents solutions from being adopted nationally is not a lack of knowledge, but a lack of the political will to make what would be wrenching structural changes concerning housing and social services in this nation.” —Rob Rosenthal, Contemporary Sociology "Useful volume of up-to-date information." —Langley C. Keyes, APA Journal

From the Publisher