PA 874, Session 10

1
PA 874, Session 10

• Homelessness 1

2
Overview

• Basic Issues on Homelessness
• How to Define the Homeless?
• Counting Methods and Problems
• Who Are the Homeless?
• Turnover
• Trends and Counts
• Hoppers, Reckoning With Homelessness

3
Defining the Homeless?

• How do we do it?
• Historical and General Definitions
• What are the relevant categories?
• Public Places
• Shelters
• Welfare Hotels
• Living With Others
• Jails, Detox, Mental Hospitals

4
Counting Methods and Problems

• Easiest In Shelters Hotels
• How to Count the Non-Sheltered?
• Night Surveys. Problems?
• Day Surveys. Problems?
• Best Urban Institute 1987, 100,000 cities only
• Result Wide variance 300,000 to 1,000,000
  on any given night

5
Who Are the Homeless?

• Table 1. Urban Institute
• Conclusions?
• Few Families
• Mostly Those Alone
• Note Shelter to Street Ratio Differences
• What Will Katrina Do to These Numbers?

6
Turnover

• TurnoverHow Long Are People Homeless?
• Survey Results Homeless Last 5 Years?
• Answer 3.4
• But, On Any Given Night?
• ½ Whole Year
• ½ Not a Whole Week
• How to Interpret? Jencks Quote pp. 13-14.

7
Trends and Counts

• Table 2.
• Dramatic Increase in Sheltered.
• Decline 1987 1990?
• 300,000 400,000
• Table 3. Going Back to the 1950s.
• Tough? Only Chicago. Street Counts 5 Bowery
  Districts.
• Note Cubicle Hotels Called Cage Rooms

8
Trends and Counts - Madison

• United Way Mobilization Plan
• Shelter Counts Over Time Table IV
• Shelter Counts - Children vs. Single Men
• Why the Discrepancy in the Numbers?

9
Hoppers Reckoning With Homelessness

• About the Author
• About Reading the Book
• Structure of the Book Three Parts
• Introduction Historical Background
• Four Ethnographic Vignettes
• Advocacy and Engagement (Next Week)

10
Section I - Introduction

• Ethnography Two Important Elements
• Framework or Framing
• Field Work
• Themes of the Book What it is about?
• Wellsprings of Homelessness? Preview.
• What can we do about it?
• The Role of Ethnography in Both

11
Two Concepts in Framing

• Abeyance
• Defined Mismatches and Redundant People
• E.G.s of Solutions?
• Liminality
• Defined State of passages in transitions
• Fascinating and Relevant E.G.s
• What Do These Have to Do With Homelessness?
• What is Emmas Story About?