Homeless in the United States
- 1 October 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Housing Studies
- Vol. 1 (4) , 228-240
- https://doi.org/10.1080/02673038608720581
Abstract
The way public authorities presently define the homeless in the United States carries forward a complex historical legacy. The causal and moral assessments of the homeless, grounded in the work ethic of our capitalist society, have left behind four interpretations of the homeless as vagrant, deviant, sick or victim. Analysis of recent studies of the homeless, while uncovering the presence of all four definitions, found that most of the ‘new’ homeless are victims of the economy or sick.Keywords
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