Homelessness
(see also Poverty & Welfare, Welfare Reform, Hunger in the US, Housing the Poor)
Basics:On the Web: Articles
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Homeless People & the Internet.
International Network of Street Newspapers.
National Alliance to End Homelessness.
National Coalition for the Homeless.
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.
National Policy & Advocacy Council on Homelessness.
UN International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights. Key element of international human rights law, in force since 1976 but still unsigned & unratified by the US.
In the Library: Articles
Birne, Eleanor. "Make it more like a murder mystery," London Review (5/19/05). Review esay on Masters, Stuart: A Life Backwards.
Cunneen, Joseph. "Underground stories: spirited humor livens films about the down-and-out," National Catholic Reporter (5/16/03): 16.
Harman, Danna. “Read all about it: street papers flourish across the US,” Christian Science Monitor (11/17/03):13.
Katz, Alyssa. "Human rights on wheels," Nation (1/28/98):19-22. Kensington Welfare Rights Union of Philadelphia tours country to document human rights violations caused by "welfare reform."
McGray, Douglas. "The abolitionist," Atlantic Monthly (6/04). Philip Mangano, Pres. Bush's "homelessness czar" & his new approaches to the problem.
Vanderstaay, Steven. “Street lives,” Progressive (9/92):21-25.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Connolly, Deborah R. Homeless Mothers. Face to Face with Women & Poverty (Minneapolis: U. Minnesota, 2000).
DePastino, Todd. Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America (Chicago: U. of Chicago, 2003).
Desjarlais, Robert. Shelter Blues: Sanity & Selfhood among the Homeless (?, 1997).
Grant, George. The Dispossessed: Homelessness in America (Ft. Worth TX: Dominion, 1986).
Jencks, Christopher. The Homeless (Cambridge MA: Harvard, 1996)
Jones, Jacqueline. The Dispossessed: America's Underclasses from the Civil War to the Present (NY: Basic Books, 1992).
Kozol, Jonathan. Rachel & Her Children: Homeless Families in America (NY, 1988).
Kusmer, Kenneth L. Down & Out, On the Road: The Homeless in American History (NY: Oxford, 2002.
Masters, Alexander. Stuart: A Life Backwards (London: Fourth Estate, 2005). Biography of homeless man in UK, remarkable as sketch of city life & "safety net" from his perspective.
Mitchell, Joseph. Joe Gould's Secret [1965] (NY: Vintage, 1999).
National Coalition for the Homeless. Rural Homelessness in America: Appalachia & the South (NY: Coalition, 1987).
Nunez, Ralph de Costa. Beyond the Shelter Wall: Homeless Families Speak Out (NY: White Tiger, 2004).
__________. A Shelter is Not a Home...Or Is It? (NY: White Tiger, 2004).
West, Morris L. Children of the Shadows: The True Story of the Street Urchins of Naples (NY: Doubleday, 1957)
In the Library: Fiction
Grisham, John. The Street Lawyer (NY: Doubleday, 1998).
Paretsky, Sara. Tunnel Vision (NY: Delacorte, 1994).
Tobar, Hector. The Tattooed Soldier (Harrison NY: Delphinium, 1998). Guatemalan immigrants & homeless life in LA.
"The Place We Found for Michael", by Charlie King. from c.d. "Inside Out," Vaguely Reminiscent Sounds, 1995
"There But for Fortune,"
by Phil Ochs. Greg Artzner & Terry Leonino, Magpie Give Light, Sliced
Bread Records CD-SB71185.
Film & Video:
"Boesman & Lena" [2002], dir. John Berry [2002], 84m. From Athol Fugard play, about homeless colored folk on South Africa's Cape.
"The Homeless Home Movie" [1996], dir. Patrick Hennessy, 84m. From Media Visions.
"Home Sweet Homeless" [1988]
"The Man Without a Past" [2002], dir. Aki Kaurismäkki, 97m. In video stores. Homeless folk & the Salvation Army in Helsinki.
"A Margem da Imagem" [2003], dir. Evaldo Mocarzel, 72m. Documentary on homeless folks in São Paulo.
"Pharaoh's Streets" [2000], dir. Jethro Rothe-Kushel, 45m. Homelessness in Los Angeles.
"The Saint of Fort Washington" [1993], dir. Tim Hunter, 103m. In video stores.
"The Street: A Film with the Homeless" [1997], dir. Daniel Cross, 58m. Canada.
"Taylor's Campaign" [1998], dir. Richard Cohen, ?m. Street person runs for office in Santa Monica.