Marvin Olasky

woman-reading-book-at-evening-at-home-close-up-stockpack-ado-272072948-stockpack-adobe_stock
Woman reading book at evening at home close up
Image Credit: Goffkein - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
October 4, 2024
Homelessness
5

Elliott’s “Invisible Child”: A Model of Narrative Non-Fiction

Marvin Olasky
October 4, 2024
Homelessness
5
Sixty-six books have won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction since that award began in 1962. Two of the books — sociologist Matthew Desmond's Evicted (the 2017 winner) and journalist Andrea Elliott's Invisible Child (2022 Pulitzer) — portray people in and out of homelessness. I criticized Desmond's work last month: He communicated an unmodulated despair. Last week, though, I recommended E. Fuller Torrey's American Psychosis, and this week I want to recommend Invisible Child's nuanced hopefulness. 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
Marvin Olasky
September 27, 2024
Homelessness
5

How Politicians Strafed the Cuckoo’s Nest

Marvin Olasky
September 27, 2024
Homelessness
5
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
Marvin Olasky
September 6, 2024
Homelessness
5

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

Marvin Olasky
September 6, 2024
Homelessness
5
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
Marvin Olasky
August 30, 2024
Homelessness
5

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

Marvin Olasky
August 30, 2024
Homelessness
5
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
Marvin Olasky
August 23, 2024
Homelessness
4

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

Marvin Olasky
August 23, 2024
Homelessness
4
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
Marvin Olasky
August 16, 2024
Homelessness
4

Foster Care Children Too Often Become Homeless Adults

Marvin Olasky
August 16, 2024
Homelessness
4
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 ›
little-girl-with-paper-family-in-hands-concept-of-divorce-custody-and-child-abuse-stockpack-adobe-stock
little girl with paper family in hands. concept of divorce, custody and child abuse
Image Credit: ronstik - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
August 9, 2024
Homelessness
4

How Adverse Childhood Experiences Turn into Homelessness

Marvin Olasky
August 9, 2024
Homelessness
4
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 ›
young homeless boy crying on the bridge
young homeless boy crying on the bridge, poverty, city, street, negative emotion
Image Credit: Roman Bodnarchuk - Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
August 2, 2024
Homelessness
4

Coming Out of Trouble

Marvin Olasky
August 2, 2024
Homelessness
4
Rob Henderson's Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class (Gallery Books, 2024) is well worth reading. I'll give you two reasons Henderson's life and book are not exceptional, then two reasons why they are. Read More ›
Sad little boy alone in a dark room
Licensed via Adobe Stock
Marvin Olasky
July 26, 2024
Homelessness
5

The Foster-Care-to-Homelessness Pipeline

Marvin Olasky
July 26, 2024
Homelessness
5
Earlier this month I wrote about the regular Wednesday dinners for unhoused humans at the University Avenue church. This week I'll write about a Friday night fundraising dinner in a church gym four miles further north. The beneficiary: Safe Families for Children of Austin — one of a hundred Safe Family chapters in 30 states that try to keep children from having the traumatic experiences that contribute to the psychology of homelessness. Read More ›
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Caitlyn McKenney
July 2, 2024
Homelessness
1

Middle America Has a Lot to Teach us About Homelessness

Caitlyn McKenney
July 2, 2024
Homelessness
1

In this episode, I’m joined by Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Marvin Olasky who is the author of 29 books, the former editor of WORLD Magazine, and has spent the last year living in homeless programs across the U.S. to learn from the people living in them. We discuss the bias of West Coast journalism, what makes programs successful, and the stories Read More ›