Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing?

The authors study what is perhaps an intractable problem. Homeless in the US. They discuss the safety net afforded by various government bodies and charities. Though it is the government, at federal and state levels, that is seen as having the best resources to address the issue. One chapter talks about the most basic thing. How many homeless are there at any given time? This is surprisingly difficult to measure. Given that many long term homeless persons might have the ability to maintain a necessarily low profile. The problem is concentrated in the cores of cities. But the book notes that shelter providers consistently overestimate how many they actually serve. Other chapters describe spells for homelessness, and different subgroups of homeless. As for the causes of being homeless, there is a litany of woe. Alcohol and drug abuse, mental health and lack of education are the primary causes. Grim reading.