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

Martha R. Burt (Author), Laudan Y. Aron (Author), Jesse Valente (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0877667012 | ISBN-13: 978-0877667018 | Publication Date: June 2001 | Edition: 1

Homelessness has now been on the American policy agenda for close to two decades. In 1989, when Martha Burt wrote America's Homeless, (with Barbara Cohen, Urban Institute Press), 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 volume, Martha Burt and colleagues return to the issue 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, and how long their homelessness lasts. They examine the programs that provide assistance to the homeless, and how they are configured within communities of different sizes. Finally, the authors explore what these data say about how policymakers have approached this problem, and about our prospects for effectively addressing it in the new millenium.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...a rich and informative overview of who is homeless and why. -- Carla I. Javits, President and CEO, Corporation for Supportive Housing

Helping America's Homeless makes a significant contribution to our understanding of homelessness today. -- Nan Roman, President, National Alliance to End Homelessness

This is the most comprehensive, thorough and practical material to date on homelessness. -- Natalie Hutcheson, Director of Specialized Housing Resources, Kentucky Housing Corporation

This landmark study should end pointless ideological bickering and provide a rock-solid foundation for finally ending this national disgrace. -- Robert Rosenheck MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Public Health, Yale Medical School, National Director, Evaluation of VA Homeless Programs

About the Author

Martha Burt is the director of the Social Services Research Program at the Urban Institute. She has been involved in research and evaluation pertaining to a wide variety of populations and issues. Her work has included the first national survey of homeless individuals, conducted in 1987. She is the author of a number of books and reports on homelessness and of the federal report based on the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients

Laudan Y. Aron is a research associate at the Urban Institute's Labor and Social Policy Center. Her work has covered a wide range of social welfare issues, including child welfare and child support; health, disability, and family planning; education; employment and training; and homelessness

Edgar K. Lee is currently pursuing graduate studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and is a researcher at the Civil Rights Project at Harvard Law School.

Jesse Valente, now at Abt Associates in Boston, was a research assistant at the Urban Institute from 1998 through 2000.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Urban Institute Press; 1 edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877667012
• ISBN-13: 978-0877667018
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #409,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars grim reading, September 26, 2006

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? (Paperback)

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.