Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People

by David A. Snow, Leon Anderson

David Snow and Leon Anderson show us the wretched face of homelessness in late twentieth-century America in countless cities across the nation. Through hundreds of hours of interviews, participant observation, and random tracking of homeless people through social service agencies in Austin, Texas. Snow and Anderson reveal who the homeless are, how they live, and why they have ended up on the streets. Debunking current stereotypes of the homeless. Down on Their Luck sketches a portrait of men and women who are highly adaptive, resourceful, and pragmatic. Their survival is a tale of human resilience and determination, not one of frailty and disability.

Genres: Sociology, Ethnography, Nonfiction

408 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1993

Reviews

[Cameron Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thorough study of homelessness but also US poverty, identity, and psychological struggle. It has everything. I bet the basic patterns of life and causal conditions haven’t changed greatly, but it would be interesting to see a more recent work