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Reckoning with Homelessness. Kim Hopper. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 271 pp.

In a recession, the homeless population begins to rise. This includes children and families, people suffering from mental illness, and those unable to find jobs or affordable housing. This deep-diving book explores the causes and effects of homelessness and what is being done to remedy the situation

This paper reviews the history of homelessness policy in Britain, with special emphasis on the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. The structural changes in society which made the 1977 Act possible are identified, and the immediate causation of the Act itself is examined in detail. The consensus view that pressure groups played the main part in bringing about the legislative change is criticised, and instead it is argued that the Department of the Environment took the lead from start to finish.
The paper then goes on to argue that the Department of the Environment has retained the initiative in homelessness policy from 1977 up to the present day. Further structural shifts in British society are identified, which have had the cumulative effect of undermining the 1977 Act's main provisions. Specific influences on the Department which have led to its current proposals for legislative change are then outlined, and used to explain the nature and timing of these proposals. Issues of centralisation, depoliticisation and privatisation are argued to be of particular importance in explaining the overall pattern of change.

Lack of human capital, social alienation, psychiatric pathology, and exposure to stressful life events have all been offered as theoretical explanations for chronic homelessness. In this study, a multiple regression equation that included variables from all four theoretical orientations did significantly predict the length of time homeless. However, only a small percentage of the total variance of chronic homelessness could be explained by these individual-difference variables. Additional research is needed to determine if societal-level variables are more powerful predictors of chronic homelessness.

AbstractHomelessness and housing insecurity in the United States are not so much a housing problem or a poverty problem as a visible sign that growing wealth inequality has left millions of people unable to earn enough to afford adequate housing. The classical economists David Ricardo and Henry George linked wealth inequality by arbitrage to unequal income and wages. The greater the inequality of wealth, the greater the inequality of income and the lower the wages at the bottom. Neoclassical economics has largely obscured this relationship. Consequently, proposals from both conservatives and liberals to address homelessness focus narrowly on housing. Ultimately, reducing wealth inequality requires national tax reform and a return to vigorous antitrust enforcement. However, cities can reduce local inequality by making property tax assessments uniform, or, better yet, by shifting to taxing land only.

AbstractDespite considerable national and urban prosperity, significant numbers of Australians are homeless. How local governments engage with homelessness has significant implications for the homeless population. In recent years, municipal strategies have inclined towards the maintenance of public order at the cost of the rights of homeless individuals. In this article, we investigate the approach to homelessness proposed by the City of Melbourne in 2017, which centered on the expansion of powers to remove individuals and the confiscation of possessions, testing the council's claims as to the impact of visible homelessness upon local businesses and upon other users of public spaces.

A review essay on books by: Robert A. Slayton, New Homeless and Old: Community and the Skid Row Hotel (Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 1989); James D. Wright, Address Unknown: The Homeless in America (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1989); & William Tucker, The Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies (Washington, DC: Regency Gateway & the Cato Instit, 1990 [see listings in IRPS No. 61]). These works explore the US homelessness problem from the perspective of its housing market origins, rather than any personal pathologies or maladies of the homeless themselves. It is contended that, although it has been widely asserted that homelessness is a result of inadequate government intervention for the poor in the private housing market, it may well be that inappropriate intervention is involved. Critiqued are the assumptions & effects of building & zoning codes, & the historical role of housing reform advocates in minimizing the variety of housing forms (particularly the single-room occupancy hotel) that evolved during a less regulated era (late nineteenth & early twentieth centuries) to serve the poor. Modified AA

Intro -- HOMELESSNESS, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- HOMELESSNESS, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- HOMELESSNESS, POVERTY, AND UNEMPLOYMENT: AN OVERVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL MODEL -- ABSTRACT -- INTRODUCTION -- INTERSECTION BETWEEN HOMELESSNESS, POVERY, AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- HOMELESS FAMILIES, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- HOMELESS YOUTH, POVERTY AND UNEMPLOYMENT -- CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF SOCIAL ESTRANGEMENT -- Disaffiliation -- Human Capital -- Identification with Homeless Culture -- Psychological Dysfunction -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- APPLYING SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY TO INTERVENTIONS WITH HOMELESS YOUTH -- ABSTRACT -- INTRODUCTION -- THEORY OF SOCIAL CAPITAL -- Measurement of Social Capital -- Social Capital and Homelessness -- Social Capital and Education -- Outreach to Connect Homeless Youth to Social Capital -- SOCIAL CAPITAL AND HOMELESS YOUTH -- SOCIAL CAPITAL AND INTERVENTIONS -- Proposed Intervention Using Social Capital among Homeless Youth -- LOGIC MODEL OF SOCIAL CAPITAL AND HOMELESS YOUTH INTERVENTIONS -- Intervention Strategies and Activities -- Intervention Implementation and Success - Factors To Consider -- Homeless Youth Community Needs and Assets -- CONCLUSION -- REFERENCES -- HOMELESS YOUNG ADULTS AND EMPLOYMENT: ISSUES AND INTERVENTIONS -- ABSTRACT -- INTRODUCTION -- FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYMENT AMONG HOMELESS YOUNG ADULTS -- Duration of Homelessness -- Transience -- Educational Attainment -- Criminal Activity -- Substance Use and Abuse -- Mental Health and Victimization -- Traditional Services to Homeless Youths and Young Adults -- EMPLOYMENT MODELS FOR ADULTS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS -- Supported Employment -- Social Enterprise Interventions -- Similarities between Model Approaches -- ADAPTING AN EVIDENCE-BASED, SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT MODEL FOR HOMELESS YOUNG ADULTS.

First published in 1997, this volume presents the results of in-depth research into the application of the UK homelessness legislation in relation to community care, the Children Act 1989, violence to women, and racial harassment. This is supplemented with a consideration of policies and practices in 15 local authority homelessness departments. It is argued that government created the nation of a successful, or "appropriate" applicant, but this could not be translated into actual practice as the original legislation did not facilitate it. In fact, in the mid-1990s, government became more concerned with notions of inappropriateness, stereotyping those using the homelessness legislation and creating modern "folk devils". This was the background to the 1996 changes to the homelessness legislation which have created the notion of the "inappropriate" applicant. It is argued that the new legislation is more concerned with denial, deterrence and privatization. The new legislation has also detrimentally affected the application of the homelessness legislation in each of the areas discussed.