Virtually everyone living in
medium-large size cities is aware of homeless people.  Perhaps they even know where these people hangout during the
day.  Many cities have "homeless shelters"
sponsored by the city, the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America, local
churches, or other similar groups.

Hopper’s book, Reckoning with
Homelessness, is divided into three parts: 
1) Classification and History; 2) Fieldwork and Framework; and 3)
Advocacy and Engagement.  There are
several chapters within each section.

Part 1 includes a chapter tracing the efforts to
help the homeless in New York City.  It
traces the history of the homeless ranging from the poor beginning with the
Municipal Lodging House Act passed by the New York State Legislator in
1886.  This law simply recognized what
was already happening:  poor being put
up at the government’s expense.  During
the mid 1800’s, caring for the indigent poor changed from domestic
responsibility (being put up in private homes) to being put in facilities
operated by the State.  Frankly, after
reading this chapter, I realized our efforts to help the homeless are no better
organized today than they were 200 years ago!

The second portion of this book
talks about the ethnography of the homeless. 
Included is a study from 1979 to 1982 that studied the homeless found on
streets, shelters and flop houses. 
Since this study is already 20 years out of date, I wondered why it was
even included in the book.  Another
chapter talks about the homeless who live at the airport.  Again, most of the data was from pre-1990’s
studies.  The only relatively recent
article dealt with the effort during the 1990 census to count all the homeless
in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Phoenix.  Unfortunately, this effort only counted a
portion of the homeless.  A final
chapter deals specifically with homeless African American men.  The conclusion to this study was that the
majority still does not "see" this population as quickly as it does
the majority or other ethnic groups. 

Part 3 talks about efforts to
advocate for the homeless. Once again, this study is already seven years out of
date.  The final chapter concludes that
nothing has really changed.  The
homeless are still with us.  They still
include those falling on hard times due to loss of job, divorce, substance
abuse, mental illness and other diseases or disabilities.  Society still has not solved the problem of
how to reach the homeless in an effective way. 
We still have everyone from women with children to single young adults
needing shelter for the night.

Should You Read This Book?

I must reluctantly tell you not to
read this book unless you are a researcher. 
It simply does not present the complex issues surrounding homelessness
in a manner easily understood by the average citizen.  The material presented does not give the average citizen wishing
to help any practical suggestions.  This
simply isn’t a book suitable for widespread distribution to the reading public.

©
2003 Diana Pederson

Diana Pederson lives in
Lansing, Michigan.

Categories: Ethics, General