Homelessness in America: The History and Tragedy of an Intractable Social Problem

by Stephen Eide

The last thirty years have witnessed an urban renaissance in America. Major cities have managed to drive down the murder rate, improve the schools, restore the built environment, and revitalize their economies. Middle class families are putting down roots in neighborhoods once given up for dead. But solutions to homelessness have eluded even the most successful cities. While the South Bronx was once synonymous across the globe for "slum," now, San Francisco and Los Angeles are just as internationally notorious for their homelessness crises. Indeed, the same cities with the worst homelessness crises rank among America's most successful. One of the crisis' more perplexing features is how cities that have met with so much success with respect to economic development, crime and public education have failed to even ease their homelessness crisis, much less end it.

In Homelessness in America, Stephen Eide examines the history, governmental and private responses, and future prospects of this intractable challenge. The "chronic" nature of the challenge should be understood, he argues, by reference to American history and American ideals. The history of homelessness is bound up with industrialization and urbanization, the closing of the West, the Great Depression, and the post WWII decline and subsequent revival of great American cities. Though we've used different terms ("tramp" "hobo" "bum") at other times, something like homelessness has always been with us and the debate over causes and solutions has always involved conflicts over fundamental values. After explaining why homelessness persists in America and correcting popular misconceptions about the issue, Eide offers concrete recommendations for how we can do better for the homeless population.

Homelessness in America engages readers by answering the most common questions their audience brings to the topic and exploring other questions that are no less important for being not as commonly asked. Homelessness intersects with multiple other policy education, urban development, criminal justice reform, mental health. By exploring the intersection of homelessness with so many other policy areas, this book aspires to provide a comprehensive account of the challenge.

Genres: History

249 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 2, 2022

Reviews

[Frank Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful and thoughtful look at the history and policy around homelessness in America. Beyond differentiating between the "tramp" (Civil War to the Depression) "skid row" (1940s to 1970s) and "modern" homelessness eras (1980 to the present), Eide shows how each elicited different responses. The tramp era was about healthy young men traveling, who cultivated a spirit of adventurousness that led to many romantic depictions, but also increased laws against vagrancy. The Skid Row era was defined by homeless older, alcoholic men, who were stable and often located in one area of a city. The decline of the SROs and deinstitutionalization and increased drug use led to the modern era, which, ironically perhaps, is the first in which white people were NOT overrepresented among the homeless, and where family homelessness combined with young men who usually don't work and have substantial other problems.

He goes through the typical nostrums about solving homelessness and finds that most are fruitless. Housing First and the "platform" theory of housing ignores the research from HUD's Family Options Study and elsewhere that free housing often discourages employment and leads to perhaps more mental health and other problems. He shows that although mental health problems are not the foremost problems among the homeless, at about 25-33% they are a significant part in a way they weren't in a previous era, and he demands allowing families more say in the care of the mentally ill. He also shows that cities need to enforce public order and rules and that open encampments are almost impossible to stop once they blossom and begin to spread.

For a nuanced and careful look at homelessness, one which avoids the usual bromides, this book should be the first stop. All other works pale in comparison

[Addie Offereins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was super helpful for research I’m doing for a feature article. It’s an honest and nuanced deep dive into an often polarizing topic. Eide forces the reader to think through popular assumptions about what it means to be homeless and challenges that come with one-size-fits-all approaches.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homelessness in America (2022) by Stephen Eide is an analysis of why homelessness has increased in America. Eide writes for the Manhattan Institute and has a PhD in political philosophy.

America is richer than it has ever been. Crime is substantially down since the peak around 1990. However homelessness is higher than it was. It’s also more prevalent in some of the richest parts of the US such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. The incidence of homeless in states with low housing costs such as Louisiana is much lower.

The book starts by looking at how homelessness has changed in the US. Eide breaks this into three parts, the Hobo Era, the Skid Row Era and the modern Era. In the Hobo Era young men traveled across the US and did farm work seasonally when it was available. Itinerant farm work shrank from the 1950s onward and homelessness was then concentrated in Skid Row areas of US cities. There Single Room Occupancy (SRO) dwellings were used and poor single men lived in these places. From about 1980 Eide writes about the modern era of American homelessness. After the emptying out of the mental asylums a substantial number of homeless people now had mental illnesses. In the modern era homeless people were no longer concentrated in Skid Row type areas.

Eide then looks at how modern American cities are addressing homelessness. He writes about how the Housing First doctrine has driven most homeless policy in the US since about 2005. Housing First is the idea that the only real fix for homelessness is housing provided with no preconditions. Eide questions the effectiveness of this policy. He notes that homelessness has been increasing since it’s been the favoured approach. Also he notes that cost of Housing First in expensive areas like New York and San Francisco is very high per unit of accommodation.

The book also looks at how much mental illness and substance abuse problem drive modern homelessness. In his analysis of historic homelessness Eide points out that through different eras alcohol abuse has always been a factor. With modern homelessness opioid and amphetamine abuse has become a major factor. Eide points out that credible estimates show that 1/4 to 1/3 of modern homeless people abuse drugs or alcohol and that a similar proportion have a mental illness. How this can be dealt with is difficult but the practice in some US cities of tolerance with these two major issues is not working. Eide’s skepticism of Housing First is given more ground with these problems. It is not clear that putting the mentally ill and substance abusers into housing will work.

The book is less clear in what it recommends than in the description of the situation. There isn’t a simple list of what’s required to substantially reduce modern homelessness with justifications of how this would work. Eide does discuss how giving more help to families with mentally ill members might help. He also suggests that SRO type accommodation and shelters can help.

Homelessness in America is a really interesting book to read. Eide’s analysis of the history of homelessness in America is very worthwhile. His skepticism of current homeless policies is also well done. The book is well worth it for anyone who wonders why some of the richest cities in one of the world’s richest countries have such a problem with homelessness.

[Emma Krentz · Rating 2 out of 5]

reading a book as poorly-edited as this grinds my gears. extremely rude to expect your readers to spend their time reading your work when you can’t be bothered to spell-check or review.
(2 stars because he brings up a few interesting points despite never expanding on them, also his visceral disgust at homeless people is pretty well-hidden until a few illuminating passages bring it into the light)