THE SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF THE URBAN HOMELESS: A CASE STUDY OF CHICAGO

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Abstract
The homeless emerged as a social problem in the 1980s because an increasing number of the destitute urban poor became visible. In earlier decades, the concentration and central location of the Skid Row hotels not only kept the very poor from public view, but fostered a variety of economic and social resources that enabled poor residents to obtain and protect a modest degree of autonomy. The destruction of Skid Row hotels to make way for new centercity development in the 1960s and 1970s virtually wiped out these vital, if unattractive, residential communities for the very poor. The poor today, lacking the geographic community resources of Skid Row, seek shelter throughout the city. Paradoxically, the location of emergency shelters in poverty areas institutionalizes this dispersal and promotes dependency.

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