Fix Homelessness

poor-homeless-or-refugee-barefoot-man-sleeps-on-the-street-i-190863737-stockpack-adobe_stock
Poor homeless or refugee barefoot man sleeps on the street in the shadow of the building
Image Credit: Srdjan - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
December 13, 2024
Homelessness
5

Eighty Years of Homelessness Realism, 1914-1994

Marvin Olasky
December 13, 2024
Homelessness
5
I've written in recent weeks about the non-sentimental view of homelessness that was common in the late nineteenth century. For much of the twentieth century, that realism carried over into academic work as well. Read More ›
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jewish holiday Chanukah/Hanukkah family selebration. Jewish festival of lights. Children lighting candles on traditional menorah over glitter shiny background
Image Credit: biotin - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
December 6, 2024
Homelessness
4

The Rarity of Homelessness in Judaism

Marvin Olasky
December 6, 2024
Homelessness
4
Christmas Eve this year is also the beginning of Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival — and Jews are less likely to be homeless than non-Jewish Americans. That's not a new phenomenon. Between 1880 and 1914, about 1.5 million Jews (including my grandparents) emigrated from czarist Russia to North America. They lived apart from the mainly Christian charity networks, yet observers at the time noted very little Jewish homelessness. Why? Read More ›
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Unrecognizable woman hand helping man to stand up
Image Credit: Prostock-studio - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
November 29, 2024
Homelessness
5

Gurteen and Lowell: Nineteenth Century Views on True Charity

Marvin Olasky
November 29, 2024
Homelessness
5
One Buffalo pastor, S. Humphreys Gurteen, said poverty was a problem, but an underlying cause was not material. He worried about the “concentrated and systematized pauperism which exists in our larger cities.” Gurteen wrote regarding “paupers” — those among the poor who had given up on working — that, “If left to themselves and no kind hand is held out to assist, they will inevitably sink lower and lower, ’til perchance they end their course in suicide or felony.” Read More ›
Rat_Pit_image_Wikimedia_Commons
Image by Edward H. Savage, no known copyright restrictions exist, accessed at Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Police_records_and_recollections,_or,_Boston_by_daylight_and_gaslight_-_for_two_hundred_and_forty_years_(1873)_(14780252001).jpg
Marvin Olasky
November 22, 2024
Homelessness
5

Jerry McAuley’s Nineteenth Century Homelessness Ministry

Marvin Olasky
November 22, 2024
Homelessness
5
In 1872, McAuley rented a small Water Street room with funds provided by church leaders who admitted the failure of their plan to import middle-class ecclesiastical style into the Rat Pit. McAuley's services were different than anything Water Street, or other mean streets, had seen. He invited in homeless men and others for cheap but hot food, and lots of hot stories. Read More ›
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Discovery Institute
November 11, 2024
Homelessness
2

Discovery Releases New Data and Policy Approach for Seattle’s Homelessness Crisis

Discovery Institute
November 11, 2024
Homelessness
2
If the growth rate of unsheltered homelessness in King County remains unchanged, the population experiencing unsheltered homelessness will double from nearly 10,000 to a staggering 20,000 in less than three years. A new report from Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative offers policy recommendations and new data to address the crisis. Read More ›
a-teenage-boy-who-ran-away-from-home-scared-stands-alone-on-671715926-stockpack-adobe_stock
a teenage boy who ran away from home, scared, stands alone on the platform,
Image Credit: Наталья Лазарева - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
November 8, 2024
Homelessness
5

The Winding Path of Homeless Youth

Marvin Olasky
November 8, 2024
Homelessness
5
In the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Tyler quoted homeless individuals about family influences: "My dad and my mom both drank really hard. . . . My grandfather died from alcohol abuse. . . . My dad's three brothers are all alcoholics and do drugs. . . . my cousins, they're all drug dealers. . . . Dad gets abusive . . ." Read More ›
magic-lamp-glowing-in-the-dark-with-mysterious-aura-magic-la-896668938-stockpack-adobe_stock
Magic lamp glowing in the dark with mysterious aura, magic, lamp, dark, glowing, mysterious, aura, genie, wish, mystery
Image Credit: Udomner - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
November 1, 2024
Homelessness
5

The Aladdin Factor: Why Troubled Kids Fare Better Than Foster Kids

Marvin Olasky
November 1, 2024
Homelessness
5
Aladdin, you may remember from the Disney movie, calls himself a "street rat" and knows how to survive amid homelessness. He is competent. He has "agency," the belief that he can act to improve his circumstances. That mindset is different from what former foster child Rob Henderson describes in his good memoir, Troubled. Read More ›
male-isolated-homeless-wearing-a-brown-hat-sitting-on-the-pe-319520382-stockpack-adobe_stock
Male isolated homeless wearing a brown hat sitting on the pedestrian.
Image Credit: Олександр Цимбалюк - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
October 25, 2024
Homelessness
5

“Homelessness in America”: Stephen Eide’s Eye on Reality

Marvin Olasky
October 25, 2024
Homelessness
5
My third and last book to recommend this month is Stephen Eide’s Homelessness in America: The History and Tragedy of an Intractable Social Problem (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022). Read More ›