For many decades and for many reasons, people who are homeless have chosen to live in camps or other makeshift settings, even when shelters are available. Is this an act of resistance? Of self-preservation? Or are they simply too addicted, too mentally ill, or too criminal to adapt to the rules and regulations of shelter life? To address these questions, Michele Wakin explores the evolution of    More >

How do individuals move from being homeless to finding safe, stable, and secure places to live? Can we recreate the conditions that helped them most? What policies are needed to support what worked—and to remove common obstacles? Addressing these questions, Jamie Rife and Donald Burnes start from the premise that the most important voices in efforts to end homelessness are the ones most    More >

Homelessness once was considered an aberration. Today it is a normalized feature of US society.  It is also, argue Elizabeth Beck and Pamela Twiss, an industry: the embrace of neoliberal policies and piecemeal efforts to address the problem have ensured a steady production of homeless people, as well as a plethora of disjointed social services that often pathologize individuals instead of    More >

Despite widespread recognition that the majority of homeless women suffer from severe mental and emotional trauma, our healthcare system has essentially left them untreated—other than to mask their symptoms with psychiatric drugs. Why? And what can be done about it? Addressing this issue, Laura Huey and Rose Ricciardelli not only present an integrated analysis of  the ways that the    More >

Despite billions of government dollars spent in the attempt, we are no closer than we were three decades ago to solving the problem of homelessness. Why? Tackling these questions, the authors of Ending Homelessness explore the complicated and often dysfunctional relationship between efforts to address homelessness and the realities on the street.    More >

Privacy, mobility, dignity—living in a vehicle offers many advantages over life in a shelter or on the street. Michele Wakin broadens our understanding of homelessness by exploring the growing phenomenon of vehicle living and how it differs from other forms of makeshift housing.     Incorporating both quantitative data and ethnographic work in California, Wakin takes us into    More >

A weary-looking man stands at an intersection, backpack at his feet. Curled up nearby is a mixed-breed dog, unfazed by the passing traffic. The man holds a sign that reads, "Two old dogs need help. God bless." What's happening here?         Leslie Irvine breaks new ground in the study of homelessness by investigating the frequently noticed, yet    More >

Choice Outstanding Academic Book! Whose fault is homelessness? Thirty years ago the problem exploded as a national crisis, drawing the attention of activists, the media, and policymakers at all levels—yet the homeless population endures to this day, and arguably has grown. David Wagner offers a major reconsideration of homelessness in the US, casting a critical eye on how we as a society    More >

In their compelling examination of what it means to be truly at home on the street, Jason Wasserman and Jeffrey Clair argue that programs and policies addressing homeless people too often serve only to alienate them. Wasserman and Clair delve into the complex realities of homelessness to paint a vivid picture of individuals—not cases or pathologies—living on the street and of their    More >