Homelessness is nothing new. Two thousand years ago Roman historian Livy described a tugurium, a made-of-scraps lean-to like the ones I’ve seen homeless people construct on trash heaps in Guatemala City and Phnom Penh. British historian Peter Brunt’s summary is blunt: “Most of the inhabitants of Rome lived in appalling slums.’”
In helping the homeless we should be both generous and discerning. If we only provide material help in a way that enables addiction and overlooks mental illness, our generosity may be selfishness that gives ourselves a warm glow but hurts others.
If you've seen the TV show "Welcome Back, Kotter," you may sense a bit of what I'm feeling now. During the 1990s I wrote a lot about homelessness, and I’m jumping back into the subject now with Fix Homelessness and the crucial subtitle of this website, "How to rebuild human lives."
