Homelessness

"Homelessness is the condition of people without a permanent dwelling, such as a house or apartment. People who are homeless are most often unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure and adequate housing. The legal definition of homeless varies from country to country, or among different jurisdictions in the same country or region. The term homeless may also include people whose primary night-time residence is in a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, long-term residence in a motel, a vehicle, squatting, cardboard boxes, a tent city, tarpaulins, shanty town structures made of discarded building materials or other ad hoc housing situations.  United States government homeless enumeration studies also include people who sleep in a public or private place not designed for use as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings."
-- Wikipedia: "Homelessness"

This article focuses on selected aspects of the topic, and a bibliography.

History of concepts / terms

Vagrancy has been a term in use, and object of criminalization, at least since the 16th century in England. 'Hobo' and 'tramp' came from post-Civil War era, having different connotations, latter used more in UK. 'Traveller' is sometimes used as less-pejorative term, associated with and sometimes specifically meaning gypsy or Roma-identifying groups.

Disaffiliation, or being disaffiliated from family and other social networks, has also been used in research studies back to earlier 20thC, especially in social-science contexts, pioneered by [University of] Chicago School in sociology. 'Transient' is a usage going back many decades, particularly associated with criminal classification and enforcement against the homeless, and now generally deprecated.

'Homeless' prior to the 1980s did not necessarily imply unhoused, but mostly meant disaffiliated. 'Homeless' in the present sense -- to mean unsheltered or possibly in special-case settings such as shelters, hospitals, and prisons -- dates from the early 1980s. [locate origins?]. Unsheltered is used in the US to describe a condition of living in places not meant for human habitation, e.g. outside; it is considered a subset of the homeless population.

In the UK, "rough sleeping" is commonly used to describe being unsheltered.

Today, many advocates or people with experience of homelessness deprecate use of 'homeless', e.g. "homeless people", on the idea that it is defining people's identity based on what is only a transitory and inessential condition. Also, there is an idea that 'home' is something different than having housing, and a person without conventional housing may feel they have a 'home' in a certain location or community. (this actually revives in a way the earlier-20th concept that 'homeless' may not mean unhoused').

Some prefer 'unhoused' or 'houseless', others in more careful/official contexts may prefer "people experiencing homelessness, or abbreviated, PEH. 'Houseless' has the advantages that it can often be substituted in place of 'homeless' while sounding similar and maintaining 'H'-using acronyms. For example, there is an advocacy group/term HouselessFirst which may be referencing and implicitly critiquing the 'Housing First' model of homelessness response.

'Homelessness' doesn't really fall under the same criticism as 'homeless' does, because it describes a state rather than an identity. Nonetheless, some still don't like it and instead use e.g. 'houselessness'.

Looking at it in a larger context, of course many to most humans in our species' history have lived in what we would call transient or migratory patterns. That may be permanently nomadic, as has survived into modern times in Central Asia and Africa and subgroups like Roma / Traveller groups. Often it was seasonal migratory, possibly with homesteads and partial or full structures left in place in the off-season locations. Or, food-source migratory, following migrating animal herds or relocation of food-producing lands as climate and fertility shifted.

The portion of humanity living in what are considered displaced or refugee situations has now reached its highest point in history since the previous height just after WWII. It's now often predicted that climate-change disruption will increase this displacement to a higher level than ever in recorded history. Some, however, argue, that this will be essentially returning to a geological-scale terrestrial norm of wide climate fluctuations, after an anomolously-stable few millennia which gave rise to our present civilization of fixed agriculture, settlement, cities, and landed property.  

 

Cultural history 

Some view mobile vs fixed living as a fundamental cultural conflict that continues to play out, for example in discriminatory attitudes/laws regarding mobile and manufactured housing, more vs less permanent building forms, and residents of the less fixed, site-built, or permanent housing forms. (mobile/manufactured housing is largely disallowed in Portland, e.g.!). The founder of "landscape studies," John Brinckerhoff Jackson, is associated with this view, from his studies of mobile and light-weight housing forms in the U.S., e.g. classic essay "The Movable Dwelling and How It came to America." [Jackson 1984].

There is a school of interpretation of the Cain and Able story that sees it as reflecting ancient conflicts between older nomadic groups or social strata -- 'Able' meaning shepherd or wanderer -- versus newer, agricultural economy, 'Cain' figure in some descriptions etymologically related to 'city.' In this analysis, Cain's killing of Able represents the new culture/society's persecution of the older [Allen 2012]. Cain is punished by, ironically, casting him out to be "a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth" (Genesis 4:14, KJV translation) -- this well-known usage from KJV is probably a reference point for later laws against vagabondage and vagrancy.

Cain later, however, becomes a "founder of cities," representing the regime of property and land rent and fixed dwelling, in its next iteration from agriculture to urban economy. The cities, in today's US as in ancient Israel, tend to prohibit and exclude the 'transient' or people inclined to it. 

Housing First

see main article: Housing First

from December, 2016 literature review and commentary [Kertesz et al 2016]: 

"Advocates for ending homelessness have increasingly turned to a financial argument, claiming that permanent supportive housing will deliver net cost savings to society." "We believe the cost-savings argument is problematic and that it would be better to reframe the discussion to focus primarily on the best way to meet this population’s needs." "Higher-quality randomized, controlled trials...haven’t demonstrated net cost savings." "Staking the future of Housing First on the expectation that it will save money could undermine efforts to deliver an effective intervention to the majority of the population it’s intended to serve."

[Baxter et al 2019]: 

"the data included in this review were exclusively from North America and the participants were all selected on the basis of complex health needs (such as mental illness, substance abuse or chronic physical illness) as per the principles of HF.16 17 This may limit the generalisability of our findings internationally, as well as to homeless people without complex health needs."

"Our systematic review found that HF resulted in large improvements in housing stability; with unclear short-term impact on health and well-being outcomes. For mental health, quality of life and substance use, no clear differences were seen when compared with TAU [Treatment As Usual].. HF participants showed a clear reduction in non-routine use of healthcare services, over TAU. This may be an indicator of improvements in health."

"Housing First approaches do not appear to consistently improve or harm health in the short-term, but long-term impacts are unknown." 

 

Writings / work by the homeless

International Network of Street Papers

Homeless-run newspapers (street paper):
    StreetRoots, Portland; and 100+ other cities. 

Israel Bayer of Portland, longtime editor of Street Roots, is now working for INSP to launch a North American Bureau.  

Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau

a program of the National Coalition for the Homeless

Doreen Traylor

a resident of coastal Washington State, Doreen has a background in urban studies and housing, and lived experience with homelessness, offers writing/editing services (see About page) and publishes about homelessness and related issues online in various places, including: 

• The Genevieve Files: http://genevievefiles.blogspot.com
• San Diego Homeless Survival Guide
• What Helps The Homeless
• Street Life Solutions
• Pocket Puter

Note from Doreen:

"Here's another blog by a homeless person (I have read only part of one page, no clue how good most of it is)
https://nilskidoo.blackblogs.org/throwing-stones-at-the-mossbacks-gathered/."  [page not loading when we tried it 11 Sept 2019]. 

 

References

Top recommended readings / overviews

Ellen, Ingrid Gould, and Brendan O'Flaherty, Editors. How to House the Homeless (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010).

• Summary, Table of Contents, from publisher. 
• Ch. 1: Introduction, by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Brendan O’Flaherty.
• PART I HELPING PEOPLE LEAVE HOMELESSNESS 
• Ch. 2: "Service Models and Mental Health Problems: Cost-Effectiveness and Policy Relevance." by Robert Rosenheck. In Google Books:  https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr5WAwAAQBAJ. 
• Ch. 3 "Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Promoting Recovery, and Reducing Costs." by Sam Tsemberis.  PDF.
• PART II USING HOUSING POLICY TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS 
• Ch. 4: "Housing Market Regulation and Homelessness." by Steven Raphael
• Ch. 5: "Fundamental Housing Policy Reforms to End Homelessness." by Edgar O. Olsen
• Ch. 6: "Rental Subsidies: Reducing Homelessness." by Jill Khadduri
• PART III MANAGING RISK
• Ch. 7: Homelessness as Bad Luck: Implications for Research and Policy." by Brendan O'Flaherty.

Glasser, Irene. (1994). Homelessness in global perspective. New York: G.K. Hall Reference. LC-93-25087. Available for online loan at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/homelessnessingl0000glas.

Hopper, Kim, and Jim Baumohl. (1996). "Redefining the Cursed Word: A Historical Interpretation of American Homelessness." in Baumohl, Jim, ed. Homelessness in America (1996). Available for online loan at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/homelessnessinam00jimb.

O’Flaherty, Brendan. 2019. “Homelessness Research: A Guide for Economists (and Friends).” Journal of Housing Economics 44 (2019): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2019.01.003. Accepted manuscript: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gxVex3Ph82h6sRVilNkfWzvS4GsB6gGN.

Ocobock, Paul. (2008). "Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective." https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g.4. (Introduction to A. L. Beier, A. L., and Paul Ocobock, eds. (2008). Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective. Ohio University Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g). [Open Access].

Articles/papers

Allen, John J. (2011). "The Mixed Economies of Cain and Abel: An Historical and Cultural Approach." Conversations with the Biblical World, Vol 31. https://www.academia.edu/5122071/The_Mixed_Economies_of_Cain_and_Abel_An_Historical_and_Cultural_Approach. 

Baxter AJ, Tweed EJ, Katikireddi SV, et al [Baxter 2019]. "Effects of Housing First approaches on health and well-being of adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials."  J Epidemiol Community Health 2019;73:379-387. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-210981. 

Beier, A. L., and Paul Ocobock, eds. (2008). Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective. Ohio University Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g. [Open Access].

Blanchard, Dave. [2012]. "Designing for Homelessness." [interview with Linly Bynam, Teddy Cruz, & Sergio Palleroni]. OPB Think Out Loud, October 3rd 2012. https://www.opb.org/radio/programs/thinkoutloud/segment/architecture-homeless/. MP3: https://www.opb.org/audio/download/?f=tol/segments/2012/100303.mp3.

Boden, Paul, et al (2015). House Keys Not Handcuffs. Freedom Voices, 2015.  

Borges, Sofia, and R. Scott Mitchell (2018). Give Me Shelter: Architecture Takes on the Homeless Crisis. ORO Editions, February 1, 2018)

"Give Me Shelter documents the work of the MADWORKSHOP Homeless Studio at the USC School of Architecture and their solutions for tackling the Los Angeles homeless crisis through design, compassion, and humanity. The book features exclusive content from leaders in the field including Michael Maltzan, Ted Hayes, Betty Chinn, Gregory Kloehn, Skid Row Housing Trust, and many more. Paired with a forward by Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, Give Me Shelter provides an in-depth look at how design can bridge the gap in services to get people off the streets and into housing sooner."

Burman, Kara Grace. "Liminal Dwelling: Support for Street Residents, a Place of Re-integration and Transition." M.Arch thesis, Dalhousie

University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. March 2017. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h0cHFZRzSixeT_MzozrEY2iELeuORwqb/view?usp=sharing.

Burt, M. R. (2003). "Chronic Homelessness: Emergence of a Public Policy." Fordham Urban Law Journal 30(3) pp.1267–79.

Burt, Martha, et al. "Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing?" 7 (2001).

Butigan, Ken. "Olympia’s homeless win struggle for permanent housing." ["With the opening of Quixote Village, an innovative compound of 30 small cottages and a community center in Olympia, Wash., the six-year struggle of the homeless has finally paid off"]. Waging Nonviolence, January 3, 2014. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/01/olympias-homeless-win-housing/.

Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH). “Canadian Definition of Homelessness.” 2012, revised 2017.
http://www.homelesshub.ca/homelessdefinition.

Coalition on Homeless, Dilara Yarbrough, and Chris Herring (2015). "Punishing the Poorest: How the Criminalization of Homelessness Perpetuates Poverty in San Francisco." https://www.academia.edu/13087174/Punishing_the_Poorest_How_the_Criminalization_of_Homelessness_Perpetuates_Poverty_in_San_Francisco.

Cohen, Rebecca, Will Yetvin, & Jill Khadduri, for Abt Associates (2019). "Understanding Encampments of People Experiencing Homelessness and Community Responses: Emerging Evidence as of Late 2018." US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research, January 7, 2019. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Understanding-Encampments.pdf.

Corinth, K., 2017. “The impact of permanent supportive housing on homeless populations.” Journal of Housing Economics 35: 69–84.

Council of Economic Advisers. "The State of Homelessness in America." September 2019. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-State-of-Homelessness-in-America.pdf.

Culhane, Dennis P. & Stephen Metraux. "Rearranging the Deck Chairs or Reallocating the Lifeboats? Homelessness Assistance and Its Alternatives." Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol 74, Issue 1, 2008, pp111-121. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360701821618.  [full text available].

Dinh, Tran and Brewster, David and Fullerton, Anna and Huckaby, Greg and Parks, Mamie and Rankin, Sara and Ruan, Nantiya and Zwiebel, Elie (2018). "Yes, In My Backyard: Building ADUs to Address Homelessness. University of Denver Sturm College of Law Homeless Advocacy Policy Project, May 3, 2018. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3173258 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3173258.

Evans, William N., David C. Philips, and Krista J. Ruffini. [Evans 2019] "Reducing and Preventing Homelessness: A Review of the Evidence and Charting a Research Agenda."  Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab / NBER Working Paper 26232, September 2019. http://www.nber.org/papers/w26232; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sJ5FSfrtx5YE0i_AuacH7Yz_JNMOIfRn/view?usp=drivesdk.
https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/publications/reducingpreventing-homelessness-review-research-agenda.pdf.

Gans. Herbert J. (1972). "The Positive Functions of Poverty." The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 2. (Sep., 1972), pp. 275-289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/225324. PDF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WKowlKxe89TBf4HWMCgipAY_-c9a_YLR.      

"Abstract: Mertonian functional analysis is applied to explain the persistence of poverty, and fifteen functions which poverty and the poor perform for the rest of American society, particularly the affluent, are identified and described. Functional alternatives which would substitute for these functions and make poverty unnecessary are suggested, but the most important alternatives are themselves dysfunctional for the affluent, since they require some redistribution of income and power. A functional analysis of poverty thus comes to many of the same conclusions as radical sociological analysis, demonstrating anew Merton's assertion that functionalism need not be conservative in ideological outlook or implication."

Goodman, S., P. Messeri, and B. O’Flaherty. 2017. “Homelessness prevention in New York City: On average, it works.” Journal of Housing Economics 31: 14–34.

Gragg, Randy. "Guerrilla City." Architecture, May 2002. https://saveferalhumanhabitat.wordpress.com/2002/12/27/guerrilla-city-a-homeless-settlement-in-portland-has-its-own-government-urban-plan-and-skyline/. 

“In its ‘permasite’ configuration, Dignity Village could potentially be a working model for a new type of truly sustainable, high density and mixed use, organically developing urban village model. If developed according to Dignity Villages wishes, the village would enhance Portland’s reputation as being the most green city in America. ... Dignity Village hopes to become a demonstration site for solar and wind power, permaculture, environmental restoration, stormwater and greywater reuse and innovative use of recycled materials and alternative building techniques for construction.

Hayes, Ted. "History of JHUSA" [Justiceville/Homeless, USA - i.e. Dome City, Los Angeles]. http://www.tedhayes.us/domevillage/JHUSA.html. Accessed 18 October 2019.

Heben, Andrew (2011). “Inside Tent Cities,” Planning Magazine, 2011.

___. (2012). “From Camp to Village.” Communities Magazine, 2012.

___. (2013). "Opportunity Village: for and by the homeless.” The Global Urbanist, 2013.

___. (2014b). "It Takes a Village" Tiny House Magazine, 2014.

___. (2014a). Tent City Urbanism: From Self-Organized Camps to Tiny House Villages. (2014).

Hailey, Charlie (2003). "Camp(site): architectures of duration and place." Ph.D dissertation, University of Florida, 2003. https://archive.org/details/campsitearchitec00hail.

Hayes, Ted. "History of JHUSA" [Justiceville/Homeless, USA - i.e. Dome City, Los Angeles]. http://www.tedhayes.us/domevillage/JHUSA.html. Accessed 18 October 2019.

Herring, Christopher (2014). "The New Logics of Homeless Seclusion:Homeless Encampments in America's West Coast Cities." City & Community, 23 December 2014. https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.12086. PDF: https://www.academia.edu/15061831/The_New_Logics_of_Homeless_Seclusion_Homeless_Encampments_in_America_s_West_Coast_Cities_2014_City_and_Community_Vol_13_No._4_285-309.

Herring, Christopher (2015a). "The Roots and Implications of the USA's Homeless Tent Cities." City, Vol. 19, No. 5, 689-701, 2015. (co-authored with Manuel Lutz): https://chrisherringdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/herring-and-lutz-2015-city.pdf.

Herring, Christopher (2015b). "Evicting the Evicted: Five Misleading Rationales for Homeless Camp Evictions." Progressive Planning Magazine, Fall 2015, 29-32. https://chrisherringdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/ppm_fall2015_herring.pdf.

Herring, Christopher (2015c). "Tent City, America." Places Journal. December 2015. https://placesjournal.org/article/tent-city-america/.

Herring, Christopher (2015d).  "Sheltering Those in Need: Architects Confront Homelessness" (Introductory Essay for the 2016 Berkeley Prize). https://www.academia.edu/16404074/Sheltering_Those_in_Need_Architects_Confront_Homelessness_2015_Introductory_Essay_for_the_2016_Berkeley_Prize.

Herring, Christopher, and Dilara Yarbrough, Lisa Alatorre (2019). "Pervasive Penality: How the Criminalization of Poverty Perpetuates Homelessness." Social Problems, 2019, 0, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz004. https://www.academia.edu/38928064/Pervasive_Penality_How_the_Criminalization_of_Poverty_Perpetuates_Homelessness_2019_Social_Problems.

Holtzman, Ben.  "When the Homeless Took Over." ["As the homeless and affordable housing crises become a focus on local and national campaigns, we must remember the rich history and critical contributions of homeless organizers."]. Shelterforce, October 11, 2019. https://shelterforce.org/2019/10/11/when-the-homeless-took-over/.

Jackson, John Brinckerhoff (J.B.). "The Movable Dwelling and How It came to America."  New Mexico Studies in the Fine Arts, 1982; reprinted in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, Yale University Press, 1984. "the%20movable%20dwelling"&pg=PA89#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=l0J4gVZFpqEC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PR7&vq=%22the%20movable%20dwelling%22&pg=PA89#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Kavick, Ray. "First week at Camp Quixote."  Works In Progress (Thurston County Rainbow Coalition), March 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20140605060803/http://www.olywip.org/archive/page/article/2007/03/02.html.

Kertesz, S. G., and G. Johnson. 2017. “Housing First: Lessons from the United States and Challenges for Australia.” Australian Economic Review 50, no. 2: 220–28

Kertesz, Stefan G. Kertesz, M.D., Travis P. Baggett, M.D., M.P.H., James J. O’Connell, M.D., David S. Buck, M.D., M.P.H., and Margot B. Kushel, M.D. "Permanent Supportive Housing for Homeless People — Reframing the Debate." New England Journal of Medicine 2016; 375:(article).  https://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp1608326.   Full text. 

Loftus-Farren, Zoe (2011). "Tent Cities: An Interim Solution to Homelessness and Affordable Housing Shortages in the United States." California Law Review, Vol. 99, No. 4 (August 2011), pp. 1037-1081. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uVh5h2ApWpUkutmo224euDMyodPmQSYY.

Lubenau, Anne-Marie. "Site Visit: A Tiny House Village in Olympia Offers a New Model for Housing the Homeless." ["Quixote Village is a self-managed community that provides permanent, supportive housing for homeless adults"]. Metropolis Magazine, April 20, 2015. https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/residential-architecture/site-visit-a-tiny-house-village-in-olympia-offers-a-new-model-for-housing-the-homeless/.

Lucas, D. S. 2017. “The impact of federal homelessness funding on homelessness.” Southern Economic Journal 84, no. 2: 548–76. Manuscript. 

Abstract:
"Federal spending on homelessness has increased significantly in recent years. I estimate the relationship between federal homelessness funding and homeless counts in 2011, 2013, and 2015 cross sections. I instrument for funding using a community’s pre-1940 housing share, a key variable in an originally unrelated funding formula borrowed for homelessness grants. Funding increases sheltered homelessness; meanwhile, funding is unrelated to unsheltered homelessness. Lower bound estimates suggest that the minimum cost of reducing unsheltered homelessness has increased over time, from $16,400 in 2011 to $20,800 in 2013 to $50,000 in 2015. In 2013, an additional $1 thousand dollars corresponds to a .309 higher homeless rate per 10,000 people. The effect is larger for families than individuals. Funding is positively related to chronic homelessness and is unrelated to youth and child homelessness. My results suggest limitations on federal funding’s ability to reduce homelessness among some of the most marginalized groups in society."

Ly, A., and E. Latimer. 2015. “Housing first impact on costs and associated costs offsets: A review of the literature.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 60, no. 11: 475–87.

Marcuse, Peter. (1988). "Neutralizing Homelessness." Socialist Review, 1988. issue 1.

McCormick, Tim (2015). "Tiny Houses for the Homeless in San Francisco?" Medium, Nov 18, 2015. https://medium.com/@tmccormick/tiny-houses-for-the-homeless-in-san-francisco-5c87ca5625db.

Mingoya, Catherine. (2015). “Building Together. Tiny House Villages for the Homeless: A Comparative Case Study.” Unpublished master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  https://dusp.mit.edu/sites/dusp.mit.edu/files/attachments/news/mingoya_2015.pdf.

Mitchell, Don. (2011). "Homelessness, American Style." Urban Geography, 32:7, 933-956, https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.32.7.933.

Mitchell, Don. "Tent Cities: Interstitial Spaces of Survival." in Brighenti, Andrea Mubim ed. Urban Interstices: The Aesthetics and the Politics of the In-between. Ashgate Publishing, 2013. [reprinted with minor changes in Mean Streets: Homelessness, Public Space, and the Limits of Capital(2020)]. [see also Don Mitchell for discussion/excerpts].

Moulton, S. 2013. “Does increased funding for homeless programs reduce chronic homelessness?” Southern Economic Journal 79, no. 3: 600–20.

National Coalition for the Homeless. "Hoboes, Bums, Tramps: How Our Terminology of Homelessness Has Changed." June 14, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20190608135708/http://nationalhomeless.org/hoboes-bums-tramps/. 

NCH - National Coalition for the Homeless (2010). "Tent Cities in America: A Pacific Coast Report." https://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/Tent%20Cities%20Report%20FINAL%203-10-10.pdf. Acknowledgements: "Many thanks to the staff, fellows, interns and volunteers of the National Coalition for the Homeless who helped prepare this report. Special thanks to:

• Christopher Herring, Research Fellow
• Lauren Tatro, Student Intern, College of the Holy Cross, class of 2010
• Katherine Streit, Student Intern, American University, class of 2011
• Lindsey Merritt, Student Intern, James Madison University, class of 2010
• Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing, National Coalition for the Homeless
• Neil J. Donovan, Executive Director, National Coalition for the Homeless

NLCHP - National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (2017). "Tent City, USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding." https://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tent_City_USA_2017.pdf.

NLCHP - National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (2019). "Housing Not Handcuffs 2019: Ending the Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities." December 2019. http://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/HOUSING-NOT-HANDCUFFS-2019-FINAL.pdf.  

Ocobock, Paul. (2008). "Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective." https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g.4. (Introduction to A. L. Beier, A. L., and Paul Ocobock, eds. (2008). Cast Out: Vagrancy and Homelessness in Global and Historical Perspective. Ohio University Press, 2008. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1rfsq2g). [Open Access].

O’Flaherty, Brendan. 2019. “Homelessness Research: A Guide for Economists (and Friends).” Journal of Housing Economics 44 (2019): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2019.01.003.  Accepted manuscript: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gxVex3Ph82h6sRVilNkfWzvS4GsB6gGN.

Ortiz, Javier and Dick, Matthew and Rankin, Sara. "The Wrong Side of History: A Comparison of Modern and Historical Criminalization Laws." (May 4, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2602533 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2602533.

Parr, Evanie and Rankin, Sara (2018). "It Takes a Village: Practical Guide for Authorized Encampments." Seattle University Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, May 3, 2018. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3173224.

Parsell, Cameron. "Homelessness, Identity, and our Poverty of Ambition." Keynote address at 14th European Research Conference on Homelessness. 20 September 2019, Helsingborg, Sweden. Presentation slides: https://www.feantsaresearch.org/public/user/Observatory/2019/2019_conference/ppts/Plenary_-_Cameron_Parsell_-_Keynote_Europe_September_2019.pdf. Video:  https://www.facebook.com/FEANTSA/videos/515174705720867/ (2:40 - 33:20).

"We overserve people who are experiencing homelessness, and this overservicing represents one of the key barriers to actually ending it." (near start).       "Homelessness exists in Australia and increases because actually we pity them, we pity them as someone deficient, as the downtrodden, as a group of people that we want to exercise our compassion towards. Whereas a few years ago we were talking about justice, we were talking about evidence, we were talking about ending homelessness, this is what we're doing in Australia now:  we're actually giving brand new vans and washing machines, and driving around washing their clothes."

Parsell, Cameron, and Beth Watts. Charity and Justice: A Reflection on New Forms of Homelessness Provision in Australia. European Journal of Homelessness, Vol 11, No. 2, December 2017. https://www.feantsaresearch.org/download/think-piece-12032277176126500690.pdf.   

"Abstract: Charity directed at people who are homeless is invariably portrayed as positive. The good intentions of the provider of charity are not only lauded, but equated with positive outcomes for the receiver. The often severe material deprivation experienced by those who are homeless appears to justify the celebration of an extremely low bar of resource provision. Extending what has been the historic provision of food, drinks, blankets, and other day-to-day means of survival, contemporary charity in Australia also includes the provision of mobile shower, mobile clothes washing, and mobile hair dressing facilities. The emergence of similar ‘novel’ interventions to ‘help the homeless’ are seen in a wide range of other countries. In this paper we examine the consequences of providing charity to people who are homeless; consequences for the giver, receiver, and society more broadly. Drawing on the ideas of Peter Singer and the ‘effective altruist’ movement as a possible corrective to this prevailing view of charity, we suggest that such charitable interventions may not only do little good, but may actually do harm. We further argue that justice is achieved when inequities are disrupted so that people who are homeless can access the material condition required to exercise autonomy over how they live, including the resources required to wash, clothe and feed themselves how and when they choose." 

Przybylinski, Stephen. (2020). "Securing legal rights to place: mobilizing around moral claims for a houseless rest space in Portland, Oregon." Urban Geography. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1719307. [focuses on Right 2 Dream Too rest area].

Pleace, Nicholas. "The Ambiguities, Limits and Risks of Housing First from a European Perspective." European Journal of Homelessness, Vol 5, No. 2, December 2011. https://www.feantsaresearch.org/download/think-piece-1-38189457923603932070.pdf.

Quigley, J. M., S. Raphael, S., and E. Smolensky. 2001. “Homeless in America, Homeless in California.” Review of Economics and Statistics 83, no. 1: 37–51.

Rankin, Sara K. Rankin 2015. "A Homeless Bill of Rights (Revolution)." https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1532.

Rankin, Sara K. "Hiding Homelessness: The Transcarceration of Homelessness," (Posted 26 Dec 2019; Last revised: 25 Feb 2020. Forthcoming in California Law Review. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3499195).

Seattle Weekly Editorial Board. “There’s Lots to Love About Mike O’Brien’s RV Ordinance.” Seattle Weekly, 16 Aug 2017. http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/theres-lots-to-love-about-mike-obriens-rv-ordinance/.
"The proposal forces a much needed conversation about those living in cars in Seattle."

Sisson, Patrick. "Can real estate crowdfunding help the homelessness crisis?" Curbed, 22 Dec 2017. 
https://www.curbed.com/2017/12/22/16810524/portland-homeless-crowdfunding-real-estate. 
[on Jolene’s First Cousin project in Portland which offers a new, community-supported strategy to tackle homelessness].

Sparks, Tony (2009). As Much Like Home as Possible: Geographies of Homelessness and Citizenship in Seattle’s Tent City 3 (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, 2009). https://geography.washington.edu/printpdf/research/graduate/tony-sparks-phd.

Sparks, Tony. "Citizens without property: Informality and political agency in a Seattle, Washington homeless encampment." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space. September 20, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X16665360. from Abstract:

"This article attempts to broaden and deepen the conversation on informal dwellings in the US by focusing on the tent encampment as a site of creative political agency and experimentation. Drawing upon a body of work referred to by some as “subaltern urbanism”, I examine how everyday practices of camp management produce localized forms of citizenship and governmentality through which “homeless” residents resist stereotypes of pathology and dependence, reclaim their rational autonomy, and recast deviance as negotiable difference in the production of governmental knowledge. Consideration of these practices, I argue, opens up the possibility of a of a view of encampments that foregrounds the agency of the homeless in the production of new political spaces and subjectivities."

Sparks, Tony. (2016). "Neutralizing Homelessness, 2015: Tent cities and ten year plans." Urban Geography, 38(3), 348–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1247600.

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. "Robert Martin v. City of Boise, No. 15-35845." Opinion issued September 4, 2018.  https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2018/09/04/15-35845.pdf.

USICH - United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (2012). "Searching Out Solutions: Constructive Alternatives to the Criminalization of Homelessness." June 2012. https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/searching-out-solutions/.

USICH (2015). "Ending Homelessness for People Living in Encampments Advancing the Dialogue." August, 2015. https://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/Ending_Homelessness_for_People_Living_in_Encampments_Aug2015.pdf.
 

Books

Anderson, Nels. The hobo; the sociology of the homeless man (1923). Full text at Internet Archive. 

Baumohl, Jim, ed., for the National Coalition for the Homeless (1996). Homelessness in America. Oryx Press, 1996.  Google Books preview: https://books.google.com/books/about/Homelessness_In_America.html?id=9QGNV5dXevcC. 
Chapters: 

1. "Redefining the Cursed Word: A Historical Interpretation of American Homelessness" (Kim Hopper and Jim Baumohl)
2. "Homelessness: Definitions and Counts" (Martha R. Burt); 
3. "The Causes of Homelessness" (Paul Koegel, M. Audrey Burnam, and Jim Baumohl); 
4. "Housing Policy: A General Consideration" (Cushing N. Dolbeare);
5. "Why the Road off the Street is Not Paved with Jobs" (Bristow Hardin);
6. "Income Maintenance: Little Help Now, Less on the Way" (Mark H. Greenberg and Jim Baumohl).
7. "Rural Homelessness: A Synopsis" (Laudan Y. Aron and Janet M. Fitchen).
8. "Material Survival Strategies on the Street: Homeless People as Bricoleurs" (David A. Snow, Leon Anderson, Theron Quist, and Daniel Cress); 
9. "Homeless Veterans" (Robert Rosenheck, Catherine A. Leda; Linda K. Frisman; Julie Lam, and An-Me-Chung).
10.  "Homeless Families are Different" (Marybeth Shinn and Beth C. Weitzman); 
11. "Homelessness among African Americans: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective" (Kim Hopper and Norweeta G. Milburn);
12. "Homelessness and the Latino Paradox" (Susan Gonzalez Baker). Part 3, "Responses to Homelessness," includes: 
13. "Public Attitudes and Beliefs about Homeless People" (Bruce G. Link, Jo C. Phelan, Ann Stueve, Robert E. Moore, Michaeline Bresnahan, and Elmer L. Struening);
14. "Municipal Regulation of the Homeless in Public Spaces" (Harry Simon); 
15. "The Federal Response: The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act" (Maria Foscarinis); 
16. "Responses by the States to Homelessness" (Vicki Watson); 
17. "Responding to the Needs of Homeless People with Alcohol, Drug, and/or Mental Disorders" (Deirdre Oakley and Deborah L. Dennis); 
18. "Preventing Homelessness" (Eric N. Lindblom); and 
19. "Dilemmas of Local Antihomelessness Movements" (Rob Rosenthal). An appendix presents information clearinghouses, national organizations, and state organizations. 

Baxter, Ellen, and Kim Hopper. Private Lives / Public Spaces (1981).

Blau, Joel. The Visible Poor: Homelessness in the United States (1992). 

Burt, Martha R. Over the Edge: The Growth of Homelessness in the 1980s. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1992. 
Amazon preview: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0871541785/.
Google Books preview: https://books.google.com/books?id=doK4BgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false/.

DePastino, Todd (2003). Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America. University of Chicago Press, 2003.  http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=7AE2D6F25EA8B48C1CF022A588C15B2B.

Desmond, Matthew. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (2016). PDF.  ePub.   

Ellen, Ingrid Gould, and Brendan O'Flaherty, Editors. How to House the Homeless (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010).

• Summary, Table of Contents, from publisher. 
• Chapter 1: Introduction, by Ingrid Gould Ellen and Brendan O’Flaherty. PART I HELPING PEOPLE LEAVE HOMELESSNESS 
• Chapter 2: "Service Models and Mental Health Problems: Cost-Effectiveness and Policy Relevance." by Robert Rosenheck. In Google Books:  https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr5WAwAAQBAJ.  
• Chapter 3 "Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Promoting Recovery, and Reducing Costs." by Sam Tsemberis.  PDF. PART II USING HOUSING POLICY TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS 
• Chapter 6: "Housing Market Regulation and Homelessness." by Steven Raphael
• Chapter 5: "Fundamental Housing Policy Reforms to End Homelessness." by Edgar O. Olsen
• Chapter 4: "Rental Subsidies: Reducing Homelessness." by Jill Khadduri PART III MANAGING RISK
• Chapter 7: Homelessness as Bad Luck: Implications for Research and Policy." by Brendan O'Flahert
   

Feldman, Leonard C. Citizens without Shelter: Homelessness, Democracy, and Political Exclusion. (Cornell University Press, 2006).

Heben, Andrew. Tent City Urbanism: From Self-Organized Camps to Tiny House Villages (2012). 

Glasser, Irene. (1994). Homelessness in global perspective. New York: G.K. Hall Reference. LC-93-25087. Available for checkout at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/homelessnessingl0000glas.  

Gowan, Teresa. Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. (University of Minnesota Press, 2010). 

Hailey, Charlie (2008). Campsite: Architectures of Duration and Place. Louisiana State University Press, 2008. https://www.amazon.com/Campsite-Architectures-Duration-Place-Voices/dp/080713323X.

Hailey, Charlie. Camps: A Guide to 21st-Century Space. (MIT Press, 2009). LibGen.

Hopper, Kim. Reckoning With Homelessness. (Cornell University Press, 2002).   
   Jencks, Christopher. (1994). The Homeless. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Katz. The Undeserving Poor (1st edition 1989). 
Kerouac, Jack. "The Hobo in America", in Lonesome Traveller. 

Kusmer, Kenneth L.. (2001). Down and Out, on the Road: The Homeless in American History. Oxford University Press, 2001.  

Levinson, David, ed. (2004). Encyclopedia of Homelessness. http://1.droppdf.com/files/uMBPZ/encyclopedia-of-homelessness.pdf.
Noted: 

• Poorhouses, Workhouses
• Literature, Hobo and Tramp
• "Shelter" entry by Kim Hopper, p.526-531
• Appendix 1: Bibliography of Autobiographical and Fictional Accounts of Homelessness;
• Appendix 4: Documentary History of Homelessness.

London, Jack. The Road (1903). 

Mitchell, Don. Mean Streets: Homelessness, Public Space, and the Limits of Capital. University of Georgia Press, 2020. [see also Don Mitchell for discussion/excerpts].

Mosher, Heather Irene, "Participatory Action Research with Dignity Village: An Action Tool for Empowerment Within a Homeless Community" (2010). Portland State University, Dissertations and Theses. Paper 36. http://doi.org/10.15760/etd.36.

O'Flaherty, Brendan. The Economics of Homelessness (Harvard University Press,1998). 

Okin, Robert L. Silent Voices: People with Mental Disorders on the Street (2014). 

Piven, Francis, and Richard Cloward. Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (1971).http://libgen.is/search.php?req=piven+regulating+the+poor.

Quigley, John M, Stephen Raphael, and Eugene Smolensky. "Homelessness in California." Public Policy Institute of California, 2001. http://www.ppic.org/publication/homelessness-in-california/. 

Rossi, Peter H. (1991). Down and Out in America: The Origins of Homelessness. University of Chicago Press, 1991. 
http://libgen.is/search.php?req=rossi+down+and+out+in+america.

Shinn, Marybeth, and Jill Khadduri (2020). In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What To Do About It. Wiley-Blackwell, April 2020. ISBN: 9781405181259.

Tucker, William (1990). Excluded Americans: Homelessness and Housing Policies. Regnery Press, 1990. 
http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=F58A23B817EC5E11F7F70BEBCDE53179.

Willse, Craig. The Value of Homelessness: Managing Surplus Life in the United States. (University of Minnesota Press, 2015). http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=EB79F8AF2C442CD805D80384FD4D098E.