The importance of moving toward a national policy to end homelessness is crucial. In this striking examination of the roles that homeless people and the U.S. government play in causing and curtailing the escalating phenomena of homelessness, Edna Molina-Jackson asserts that there is a great need to alter the socio-economic structures that generate extreme and entrenched forms of poverty that lead to homelessness. Homeless Not Hopeless explores the role social networks play in the daily survival of homeless Latino and African American men. Using a qualitative research design, author Molina-Jackson observes how these men initiate, participate in, and maintain social networks and how these networks function. The findings support a more empowering view of homeless men as active, rational, and competent actors engaged in negotiating their social world. Members rely on social networks composed of a hierarchy of casual and intimate affiliations. The networks of Americanized Latinos and African Americans facilitate their integration into a subculture of street life, while those of recent-immigrant Latinos revolve around their struggles to find work, avoid deportation, and enlist the support of paisanos.

John Fritz became homeless at age 16. He quit school and became a tramp hitchhiking back and forth across the country. He tried many times to quit drinking and settle down, but he failed each time. His lifestyle resulted in twelve DWI's, and he was checked into treatment centers sixteen times for chemical dependency. He accumulated time in various jails totaling four years of his life, and he spent another four years in the Minnesota penitentiary system. Then he was diagnosed with mental illness. Despite all these stigmas, John somehow turned his life around. His story is laced with funny experiences, colorful characters riding freight trains, and close encounters with death. He was touched by the kindness of strangers again and again. John has an excellent memory and is a natural storyteller. After all of his failures and the things he's been through, readers will be surprised to learn in the final chapter, "Recovery," how John is now living his life.

Describes the struggled with homelessness and have overcome.Powerful poetry of reflection of hope and faith as well as facts and information about homelessness. Homeless but not hopeless carries a message of Hope and Faith providing inspiration and a message of love and Humanity- Kaye Lynn Booth Author POWERFUL!!!- Minister Emmanuel Davis Elder Charles Johnson has a true impact on the homeless not just in words alone but in Deeds- Dr. James Turknett My brother has been blessed to have great creativity and skills and putting poetry together that touches the heart as well as making one think about the issues of the day - Sargent Rodney Hinkle, Salvation Army

Arsenal's Unknown City series of alternative guidebooks designed for tourists and hometowners alike turns its attention to the City by the Bay: San Francisco, where stories of notorious murders, city hall scandals, and untold tales of Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, and Castro Street share pages with secret dining pleasures, shopping meccas, and nightclub hotspots. From the Summer of Love back in the 1960s to the Winter of Love in 2004, when the mayor of San Francisco made the city the center of the nation's gay marriage debate, San Francisco has consistently been one of America's most colorful and offbeat urban oases. From pot dispensaries in the Lower Haight to the nightspots in the heavily Hispanic Mission district to private karaoke rooms in Japan Town, all of San Francisco's hidden nooks and crannies are exposed. There's info on the Castro district, the heartland of America's gay community; the city's hot restaurant scene, home to arguably the best dining in the nation; tidbits on nearby Napa wineries; multi-level sex clubs; and the alleged whereabouts of active opium dens. There's also the story of the confrontation between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst at the St. Francis Hotel, when Hearst refused Welles' offer of tickets to the premiere of Citizen Kane; the legacy of Alcatraz and legendary prison escape attempts; and notes on San Francisco icons like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Building. Ebullient and chock-a-block with facts and figures, this book raises a glass to life in the City by the Bay. Two-color throughout; includes a BART transportation route map. Helene Goupil and Josh Krist are editor and publisher, respectively, of InsideOut Travel magazine, a bimonthly online travel publication that caters to the traveler/adventurer at heart. Helene, Josh, and InsideOut (www.insideoutmag.com) are based in San Francisco.

Because they're small, they're easy to overlook. Because their voices don't carry far, it's hard to hear them. We'd rather not look too closely or listen too carefully. And if we don't see them, maybe they'll just go away. But the invisible homeless cannot simply fly away to never-never land, or pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or make a wish upon a star. These homeless people are children, and they are not always in the inner cities, as Yvonne Vissing shows in this poignant study of families, housing, and poverty. As many as a third of our nation's homeless are found in rural and small-town America. They are all too commonly out of sight-and out of mind. Homelessness in small towns and rural areas is on the rise. Drawing on interviews with and case studies of three hundred children and their families, with supporting statistics from federal, state, and private agencies, Vissing illustrates the impact this social problem has upon education, health, and the economy. Families vividly describe the ways they have fallen through cracks in the social structure, from home ownership into homelessness. Looking toward the future, Vissing asks if homeless children are destined to become dysfunctional adults and provides a sixteen-year-old girl's moving testimony of the vagabond life her homeless family led. While the economy and the very nature of the family have changed over past decades, housing, education, and human service industries have failed to adapt. Vissing provides a planning model for improving support networks within communities and challenges Americans with a fundamental philosophical question: Do homeless children merit fullscale social intervention? Ultimately, Out of Sight, Out of Mind compels us not merely to voice concerns for family and community values, but also to assert this commitment consciously through improved essential services.

More than two million kids in the U.S. face homelessness each year, with 57 percent going without food for at least one day a month. Teens represent a shocking 7 percent of the country's total homeless population. Whether they're crashing on someone's couch, living in cars, staying in shelters, or literally sleeping on the street, studies show that the plight of homeless youths is only growing worse. The viewpoints in this book tackle the economic and societal factors that contribute to teen homelessness, the stark situations faced by young transients today, and what can be done to curb this alarming trend.