homelessness

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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
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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 ›
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poker cards chips
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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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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 ›
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little girl with paper family in hands. concept of divorce, custody and child abuse
Image Credit: ronstik - Adobe Stock

How Adverse Childhood Experiences Turn into Homelessness

Would you rather be rich or loved? Many of us might want to be both, but Rob Henderson, author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, understands what's most important: "For happiness, it's better to be poor and loved than rich and unloved." Read More ›
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Robert Marbut Discusses Grants Pass v. Johnson on [un]Divided with Brandi Kruse

On unDivided, hosted by Brandi Kruse, Robert Marbut discusses what Grants Pass v. Johnson means for cities and their homeless populations, what cities like Seattle and San Francisco need to do, and the importance of investing in treatment for mental illness and drug addiction, and the reality behind Housing First. Read More ›
Restorations Thumnbails

Public Camping Bans: Not a Cure-All, Not Cruel

We’ve accepted the dangerous conditions of public camping as a fact of urban life. It’s time to change the status quo, and the Supreme Court’s homelessness ruling gives us the chance to do that. Camping bans are not a cure-all or a cruelty. Here’s why. Read More ›
The United States Supreme Court at dusk
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U.S. Supreme Court Backs Local Communities in Nation’s Homeless Response

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Grants Pass v. Johnson that city ordinances against public camping do not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. The Court’s decision is a win not only for the small Oregon city of Grants Pass, but also for dozens of Western localities that had been hamstrung by the Ninth Circuit as they grapple with record high rates of homelessness. Read More ›