The HomelessHarvard University Press, 1994 - 161 pages How widespread is homelessness, how did it happen, and what can be done about it? These are the questions explored by Christopher Jencks, America's foremost analyst of social problems. Jencks examines the standard explanations and finds that the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, the invention of crack cocaine, rising joblessness among men, declining marriage rates, cuts in welfare benefits, and the destruction of skid row have all played a role. Changes in the housing market have had less impact than many claim, however, and real federal housing subsidies actually doubled during the 1980s. Not confining his mission to studying the homeless, Jencks proposes several practical approaches to helping the homeless. |
Table des matières
The Numbers 1 Counting the Homeless | 1 |
Estimating the Increase | 8 |
Promising Explanations 3 Emptying the Back Wards | 21 |
The Crack Epidemic | 41 |
Jobs and Marriage | 49 |
The Destruction of Skid Row | 61 |
LessPromising Explanations 7 Social Skills and Family Ties | 75 |
Changes in the Housing Market | 81 |
Budget Cuts and Rent Control | 94 |
Reversing the Trend 10 Do Shelters Cause Homelessness? | 103 |
Some Partial Solutions | 107 |
Derivation of Tables 1 and 2 | 125 |
Supplementary Tables | 138 |
Notes | 143 |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
accompanied by children alcohol American asked become homeless Burt Burt's cage hotels Census Census Bureau changes cheap hotels cheap rooms Chicago cities cocaine congregating sites Consumer Expenditure Survey conventional housing cost crack Crack Epidemic cubicle hotels decline deinstitutionalization disability benefits drugs estimates expenditure families with children federal figure homeless adults homeless population hotels and rooming household HUD's income below $2500 increase interviewed involuntary commitment Jennifer Toth Judith Levine landlords less live long-term joblessness low-income housing low-income tenants median mental hospitals mental patients mentally ill million number of homeless one-room units Peter Rossi poor tenants problems proportion public places Quality-adjusted rent burdens rent control rooming houses rose Rossi sample service users shelter count single adults single mothers skid row sleep Social someone else's home soup kitchens spend spent spouse St/Sh streets subsidized housing survey Table unsubsidized vacancy rates week welfare hotels women