Being Homeless offers valuable insights, both practical and theoretical, to human service providers as well as sociologists."--BOOK JACKET.

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.

Stoner's new book examines the collaboration between the human services and legal professions, as both deal with the complex and interrelated problems of homeless people. In surveying numerous class action lawsuits tried on behalf of the homeless, the author takes up such client-centered issues as rights to housing, minimum standards of health and welfare, education, family preservation, education, and voting. Her book will assist practitioners in their advocacy on behalf of homeless clients, while serving as a text for courses in social policy formulation and implementation.

This 1996 Nat. Survey of Homeless Assist. Providers & Clients (NSHAPC) is a landmark study. It was designed to provide updated information about the providers of homeless assistance & the characteristics of homeless persons who use the services. The survey is based on a statistical sample of 76 metropolitan & non-metropolitan areas, including small cities & rural areas. Data for the survey were collected between Oct. 1995 & Nov. 1996. Chapters: design overview; overview of homeless clients; comparing currently with formerly homeless clients & other service users; homeless assistance programs; sampling areas; & program definitions. Charts & tables.

Examines costs associated with the use of homeless and mainstream service delivery systems by families and individuals experiencing homelessness for the first time in six study communities. Assigning costs to public programs is a first step toward developing measures of the value of public interventions compared to the public costs incurred by ignoring or avoiding the problems those interventions are intended to address. The study finds that the experience of homelessness is diverse and the associated costs vary tremendously depending on the pattern of homelessness and family or individual status. It is not, however, a study of either cost-effectiveness or quality of care, but rather a calculation of costs associated with homelessness. Illustrations.

Distinguished contributors analyze the problem of homelessness from a clinical perspective, focusing on the major health problems found among the homeless, special populations within the homeless, and strategies for improvement and change.