ancient cities

364 Homelessness
illness to different degrees to account for the sudden
appearance of homelessness.
Moreover, the very definition of homelessness
became contested. Advocates argued with much
justification that a true measure of homelessness
would include not only those literally on the streets
or in shelters but those who were “crashing” or
“doubled up” with relatives or friends and those
living in group homes and prisons. In spite of the
seemingly vast differences between liberals and
conservatives, homeless shelters and similar palliative
strategies from soup kitchens to clothes pantries
to case management to increasingly specialized
casework services dominated the response of almost
all governmental levels. These solutions crossed the
mainstream political spectrum.
The federal government’s first response came
with the passage of the Stuart A. McKinney Act of
1987, which provided reimbursement for a growing
number of palliative measures (shelters, case
management services, emergency food provision).
Like other periods in which reformers spoke for
the poor, it was hardly clear if the answer of shelters
and services was what homeless people and
those at risk for homelessness most wanted. By the
later 1980s to the mid-1990s, new groups of indigenous
organizations of the poor emerged, including
some national efforts such as “Up and Out of
Poverty” and the National Union of the Homeless,
and many more localized efforts consisting of
homeless encampments and tent cities spread
throughout the nation. Despite some radicalism
reminiscent of the earlier periods of high homelessness,
these efforts also seemed to have led to palliative
remedies, and even to repressive measures
rather than any major social structural changes.
As homelessness entered the 1990s and the new
century, a central paradox was the growing
national recognition and acceptance of homelessness
along with an increased “compassion fatigue”
among the middle class and deepening repression
of the very poor at the local level. These responses
are perhaps not as contradictory as they seem. The
election of a national administration (President Bill
Clinton) that had little investment in denying
homelessness led to a rhetorical acceptance that
there were many people who were homeless and/
or in poverty. However, with neither the Clinton
nor George W. Bush administrations supporting
major social welfare or employment initiatives, not
surprisingly the optimism of the big charitable
events of the 1980s—such as the “Hands Across
America” rallies (the large corporate and government
sponsored event in the 1980s to hold hands
and help the homeless)—quickly faded. As the
middle classes pulled away from the optimistic
voluntarism of the early 1980s, cities and towns
moved by economic competition and a new criminal
justice approach of “broken windows” (i.e.,
the belief that prosecuting minor and status crimes
would make for a better overall economic, social,
and civic environment) cracked down on the
homeless. Typified by New York City’s former
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, but copied in nearly all
major cities, loitering, begging, congregating in
public spaces, and various sorts of “shadow work”
(“off the books” work such as New York’s famous
“squeegee men”) have been banned or repressed.
Increasingly, homeless people have been pushed
out of view to suburban or less central urban
areas. These changes are well documented by the
National Coalition for the Homeless.
As the new homelessness reaches its third
decade, it is clear that what was once seen as a
temporary crisis is fairly consistent with American
history’s long tolerance of extreme poverty. While
economic upswings and more jobs have had little
effect on the wages of working-class people,
there is even less reason to believe that those most
poor will benefit. At this time, it does not appear
that either political party or major figures in the
national debate endorse any major strategies to
end homelessness.
David Wagner
See also Affordable Housing; Housing; Housing Policy;
Social Housing; Squatter Movements
Further Readings
Baxter, E. and K. Hopper. 1984. Private Lives/Public
Spaces: Homeless Adults on the Streets of New York.
New York: Community Service Society.
Duneier, Mitchell. 2000. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar,
Straus, and Giroux.
Geremek, B. 1997. Poverty: A History. London:
Blackwell.
Hopper, Kim. 2003. Reckoning with Homelessness.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.