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