"They Just Need to Get a Job": 15 Myths on Homelessness

by Mary Brosnahan Narrated by Kristen Kallen-Keck

Overview

“Readers will come away infuriated, with a greater understanding of the systemic causes of homelessness, and with more compassion for their homeless neighbors. Essential reading for any community affected by homelessness (which is all of them).”
-Booklist, Starred Review

For readers of Andrea Elliott and Matthew Desmond, the former CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless breaks through the highly destructive misinformation surrounding our homeless neighbors

As the COVID-19 crisis put millions of Americans in danger of eviction, the nation's affordable housing crisis has reached new heights. Yet Conservative think tanks like the Manhattan Institute continue to disseminate anti-homeless myths in the media, legislatures, and the larger culture:

• “These people just need to learn to save money.”
• “Most homeless people are mentally ill and dangerous.”
• “Runaways aren't really homeless.”

Drawing on her deep legal knowledge, policy expertise, and decades of frontline service, Mary Brosnahan cuts through the misinformation to deliver two important messages: that homelessness ultimately stems from a lack of investment in affordable housing; and that the greatest myth of all is that we should have no hope. In fact, the proven solutions are well documented, and the ability to enact them depends on us all.

Brosnahan takes a nationwide look from New York to Detroit to rural areas such as Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, to debunk 15 widespread misconceptions, including:

• that the problem is inevitable (in fact, Housing First approaches have shown great success)
• that “handouts” cause homelessness (in fact, the primary causes are flat wages and high rent)
• that homeless people need to prove that they're “ready” to receive aid (in fact, enforcing hurdles is far more expensive and less effective than Housing First).

With brilliant insight, Brosnahan showcases how by dispelling these pervasive myths rooted in fear, we can embrace the affordable, housing-based solutions that will bring our impoverished neighbors home.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Readers will come away infuriated, with a greater understanding of the systemic causes of homelessness, and with more compassion for their homeless neighbors. Essential reading for any community affected by homelessness (which is all of them).”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“Deeply experienced and widely knowledgeable, Brosnahan has provided a useful perspective . . . An impassioned advocate reveals her truth about and solution for the crisis of homelessness in the US.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Rarely has a book, or its title, been timelier. . . . Provides truths and wisdom on every page. . . . All politicians should read Mary Brosnahan’s book.”
—The London School of Economics and Political Science

“With insight and compassion, Mary Brosnahan debunks the myths that help dehumanize and render invisible our fellow houseless citizens—increasingly families, children, and veterans. As homelessness is at the breaking point in America, Brosnahan offers a way out.”
—Heidi Boghosian, author of “I Have Nothing to Hide”

“Mary Brosnahan’s book, ‘They Just Need to Get a Job’: 15 Myths on Homelessness, arrives like water on parched soil. To give succor to those who are without homes, we must understand that to be homeless is not a sin or a failing but is to find yourself buffeted by an unequal and harsh economy. Few have battled more heroically that Brosnahan to dispel the myths that cripple our ability to see clearly and help them. Now she has written a vital book that can perhaps be distilled to this message: dream bigger.”
—Michael Powell, author of Canyon Dreams

Kirkus Reviews

2024-09-14
A historical overview of U.S. housing, with particular attention to homelessness.

Brosnahan, former executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, set herself three tasks. The first was to convince the reader that the antidote for chronic homelessness is decent, affordable, and permanent housing. Housing, she maintains, is “essential to be fully human.” The second was to correct multiple, widely held myths regarding homelessness. Her case for “housing first” is a response to two of these myths. One is that “people need to prove they’re worthy of and ready for assistance,” a myth that supports a “treatment first” approach that strives to mitigate the mental and physical health problems before offering housing to the homeless. When combined with supportive services, she asserts, “housing first” is “humaneand practical” and more economically efficient. The other myth is that “investment in social housing has proved to be a failure.” Deeply experienced and widely knowledgeable, Brosnahan believes this is false and offers limited equity cooperative housing in New York City as an example of its feasibility. (Given her all-in approach to “housing first,” one wonders why housing is absent from the title.) The third task was to provide a history of housing and homelessness in the U.S. and New York City in order to reveal the roots of the homeless crisis and support her debunking of the myths. Her criticism, though, is often unfocused, while a number of her myths, such as “Homeless people just need to learn to save,” hardly seem to qualify as widespread misperceptions. In addition, the attention she gives to the other two tasks detracts from her “housing first” position, the book’s political core.

A useful perspective but a less than fully developed argument on housing.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191561066
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	11/12/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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