Homelessness

Seattle school year ban

As Affordable Housing Crumbles, Reconsider School Year Eviction Bans

In 2021, the City of Seattle instituted a school year eviction moratorium. Households with a child under age 18 on the lease cannot be evicted for nonpayment of rent from the start of the school year in September through the end in June. The legislation may have been crafted in goodwill — to keep children housed and their lives stable — but the outcomes have been disastrous. Read More ›
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Low angle view of lonely patient in full length in modern hospital waiting lobby room walking impatiently as he waits for good or bad news from his doctor
Image Credit: ifeelstock - Adobe Stock

How Politicians Strafed the Cuckoo’s Nest

State hospitals closed. Tens of thousands among the insane hit the streets. Liberal journalists began focusing on homelessness in the 1980s in part because they could blame the Reagan administration for it, but also because about 650,000 individuals who would have been hospitalized thirty years earlier were on the streets. Read More ›
Matthew Desmond 2023_National_Book_Festival_(53123258729) Wikimedia Commons
Matthew Desmond discusses his book, "Poverty, By America," with Frederick Wherry at the 2023 Library of Congress National Book Festival, August 12. Photo by Shawn Miller/Library of Congress. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply.
Image by Shawn Miller at Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2023_National_Book_Festival_(53123258729).jpg

Dickensian Non-Fiction: Reviewing Desmond’s “Evicted”

The academic who’s gained the biggest rewards for writing about homelessness is Harvard and Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond. Many reviewers loved the way Evicted reads like fiction. The comparisons with fiction raise crucial questions: How much of Evicted is fact and how much, if not exactly fiction, is interpretation? Read More ›
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poker cards chips
Image Credit: clementetinin - Adobe Stock

Adverse Childhood Experiences: The ACEs You Don’t Want to be Dealt

ACEs ("adverse childhood experiences") go wild: ACEs such as suffering abuse or neglect, witnessing violence in the home or community, or having a family member attempt or die by suicide, undermine senses of safety and stability. Many U.S. adults experience at least one type of ACE. Most homeless adults hold in their hands at least four ACEs. Read More ›
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Schoolgirl choosing book in school library. Smart girl selecting books. Learning from books. School education. Benefits of everyday reading. Child curiosity. Back to school
Image Credit: Przemek Klos - Adobe Stock

A Peruse Through Academic Journals on the Link Between Foster Care and Homelessness

As this century began, journalist Fred Barnes quoted four discouraging words found in some illustrious newspapers: "First of a series." Journalist Mickey Kaus defined the typical newspaper series as a "bloated journalistic project driven by egos and internal institutional needs." But one thing is even more discouraging than most newspaper series: a series of articles from academic journals. Read More ›
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Little waggish kid in an empty room
Image Credit: ra2 studio - Adobe Stock

Foster Care Children Too Often Become Homeless Adults

The Safe Families dinner and Rob Henderson memoir I wrote about last month got me thinking more about "the relationship between foster care and homelessness": That's the title of a paper delivered at a 1996 conference hosted by the American Public Welfare Association and based on client files and case data from 21 homeless service organizations located in every region of the United States. Read More ›