Helping America's Homeless

Homelessness has now been on the American policy agenda for close to two decades. In 1989, when the Urban Institute published America's Homeless, by Martha Burt and Barbara Cohen, policymakers and the public may have hoped that we could end the crisis relatively quickly. The arrival of the new millennium has not fulfilled that expectation. In this new volume, Helping America's Homeless, Martha Burt and coauthors return to the problem with the most in-depth analysis of homelessness that has ever been published. Drawing on data from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC), and extending their pioneering work, the authors examine every aspect of homelessness in America, from how many homeless people there are, where they are, and why they became homeless, to how long their homelessness lasts. They explore the programs that provide assistance to the homeless, and how they are configured within communities of different sizes. Finally, the authors look at how policymakers have approached this problem, and our prospects for solving the crisis in the new millennium.