Homelessness affects people of all backgrounds, races, and religions. Whether the number of homeless people is 300,000 or 3 million, as some estimates claim, there are too many people in America who struggle to find shelter daily, making homelessness one of the most serious problems facing the nation today. This discussion, designed for the…

An exploration of the economic and historical causes of homelessness is combined with accounts of individuals and families who are on the streets or in shelters and how they came to that point. Following an overview of the problem of homelessness and its causes, nine chapters present stories of homeless individuals, friends, and families. These…

This book grew out of the national conference "The Kerner Commission: Twenty Years Later." The Kerner Commission found in its 1968 Report that America was moving toward two separate and unequal societies, divided along racial lines, and that major efforts to combat poverty, unemployment, and racism were mandated. The essays in this book…

Books in the Opposing Viewpoints Series present debates about current issues that can be used to teach critical reading and thinking skills. The variety of opinions expressed in this collection of articles and book excerpts explore many aspects of the problem of homelessness. According to a 1994 report by the U..S. Conference of Mayors, the number…

Many commentators have expressed alarm over the increase in the number of single-parent families in the United States over the past four decades. The growth in single-parent families has been fueled by a rise in the number of out-of-wedlock births. Whether children are more likely to suffer social and economic problems when raised by one parent…

Contributions to this book are based on presentations at a conference hosted by The Urban Institute in April 1994 to consider the challenges of achieving self-sufficiency for the nation's poor. Achieving long-term self-sufficiency for society's members is a fundamental social goal, but the problems involved, particularly those of finding enough…

This collection documents how far we still are in the United States from putting our knowledge about child well being and policy into practice. It provides an overview of the changing nature of child poverty in the United States through the contributions of authors who use a number of qualitative and quantitative approaches to look at children in…

The underlying causes of black urban poverty are examined, and means are recommended to escape the cycle of violence it creates. Black activists and scholars analyze theoretical and practical problems facing the black community in the United States in the following papers: (1) "Towards a Theory and Strategy for Black Economic…

Several years ago the author began visiting a number of families and children in the poor black section of Boston called Roxbury. But unlike many social scientists studying poverty in recent years, he listened--in particular to the thoughts, hopes, fears, and dreams of two fifth graders--William D. Williams and Adrien Keller. Here these two black…

The housing crisis in the United States is primarily urban. Unlike areas of urban blight, rural alums are not slums of despair by any means. "Slums of despair" is a term used in a recent study of urban life to describe those areas in some of our inner cities whose inhabitants feel they are utterly trapped--that they stand little chance of…

The seven short stories in this collection portray the lives of Puerto Rican children and adolescents in the South Bronx (New York City). The hopelessness of many Puerto Rican and Black youth is vividly depicted in stories dealing with drug use, discrimination, unwanted and early pregnancy, and a host of other urban social ills. Titles of the…

This book compares Israeli and U.S. programs to integrate high-risk youth into society. An introduction offers background on the context for such programs in Israel and the United States. Chapter 1, "Changing Youths' Attitudes: Well-Meaning Attempts in the United States," describes programs lacking a key long-term component. Chapter 2,…

The lives of poor single mothers and their children are explored, first grounding the present situation historically and pointing out their "other" status when examined against normal motherhood and family images. The first two chapters discuss the historical images of childhood and the family as they have developed in Western civilization. Part 2…

This book provides an account of life in the inner city from World War II to the present. Poor, jobless, and racially outcast young black people are economically and socially excluded from the American mainstream. To compensate for this, inner-city children turn to American traditions of consumerism and violence. Buying into the implicit message…

The Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) is the nation's major community-based organization providing manpower development services to the disadvantaged. Chapter 1 of this report introduces the topic and outlines the major issues to be considered. Chapter 2 describes the nature of the urban job crisis and the social and economic conditions…