Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing?

By Burt, Martha R. / Aron, Laudan Y. Burt, Martha R. / Aron, Laudan Y., Martha R. Burt, Laudan Aron

Homelessness has now been on the American policy agenda for close to two decades. In 1989, when the Urban Institute published America's Homeless, by Martha R. Burt and Barbara Cohen, policymakers and the public may have hoped that we could end the crisis relatively quickly. The arrival of the new millenium has not fulfilled that expectation. In this new volume, Helping America's Homeless, Martha Burt and coauthors returns to the problem with the most in-depth analysis of homelessness that has ever been published. Drawing on data from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC), and extending their pioneering work, the authors examine every aspect of the issue, from how many homeless people there are, where they are, why they became homeless, to how long their homelessness lasts. They explore the programs that provide assistance to the homeless, and how they are configured within communities of different sizes. Finally, the authors look at how policymakers have approached this problem, and our prospects for solving the crisis in the new millenium.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877667012
• ISBN13: 9780877667018
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: Urban Institute Press
• Length: 363 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 1.1" x 1.1"

Customer Reviews

grim reading

The authors study what is perhaps an intractable problem. Homeless in the US. They discuss the safety net afforded by various government bodies and charities. Though it is the government, at federal and state levels, that is seen as having the best resources to address the issue. One chapter talks about the most basic thing. How many homeless are there at any given time? This is surprisingly difficult to measure. Given that many long term homeless persons might have the ability to maintain a necessarily low profile. The problem is concentrated in the cores of cities. But the book notes that shelter providers consistently overestimate how many they actually serve. Other chapters describe spells for homelessness, and different subgroups of homeless. As for the causes of being homeless, there is a litany of woe. Alcohol and drug abuse, mental health and lack of education are the primary causes. Grim reading.