The Visible Poor: Homelessness in the United States. - book reviews

Washington Monthly, Dec, 1992 by Jason DeParle

One of the remarkable things about this year's presidential race was the absence of the poor. God knows there are plenty of them--almost 36 million by the government's last count, 4 million more than when George Bush took office. Nearly one of every four children in America now falls below the poverty line, which is pretty far to fall. So where, during the election, did they all go? The candidates spoke about America as if it is one big, struggling middle class, where everyone (but the rich) combats equal odds--all Cincinnati and no South Central.

Among the seemingly banned words was "homeless." You remember them--the men who smell bad, act crazy, sleep on park benches, demand your spare change; the women and children cycling through dismal welfare hotels. Does anyone know what the candidates proposed to do about them? Homelessness in America is now so thoroughly accepted that it doesn't even prompt cheap campaign promises.

Where candidates have been silent, authors have been prolific, and there is now a sizeable, though mostly obscure, technical literature about the homeless that addresses everything from theories about how to count them to estimates of their caloric intake. Earlier this year, two books were added to the list.

On the surface, they seem like they couldn't possibly disagree more. Writing from the left, Joel Blau describes contemporary homelessness as the latest in a series of economic upheavals, inherent in capitalism, that have periodically tossed Americans from jobs and homes since the Industrial Revolution. "Modern homelessness is, to a great extent, a product of the transformation of the U.S. economy," he writes. Blau, a professor of social work at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, acknowledges that substantial numbers of homeless people suffer from mental illness, alcoholism, or drug addiction. But he warns that such problems can be the consequences, and not just the causes, of homelessness. And he clearly does not like to dwell on unflattering behavior. To do so, he warns, would imply that the homeless "are not like you and me."

It is just this kind of argument that enrages Richard W. White Jr., a former antipoverty planner in LBJ's Office of Economic Opportunity who seems to have traveled the road to neoconservatism. What upsets him most isn't homelessness, but the advocates who try to "make the homeless seem |just like you and me.'" White argues that mental illness and addiction are not only central but underreported, and that the homeless are an even motlier lot than most people presume. He is especially incensed at Mitch Snyder, the late street guerrilla of the homeless movement, and Bob Hayes, formerly its chief legal advocate. He calls them cynical liars who heap unfair criticism upon the American system and rend the political culture with their tactics. He goes so far as to argue that, "We may have more lying than we have injustice."

The notion that these books have anything in common might horrify both authors. But that is the most surprising and important thing about them: For all their apparent mutual animosity, they tell a similar--or, at least a reconcilable--story. Clearly White (and most conservatives) thinks that the homeless are more responsible for their condition than does Blau (and most liberals). But both authors also think that the transformation to a post-industrial economy is part of the story, because it has driven down the wages of unskilled laborers. Both argue that the erosion of public benefits has played a role. (The average welfare mother with two children gets 42 percent less cash assistance now than she did two decades ago.) Both recognize that the family has fragmented, leaving more people living alone, with no one to rescue them during crises. Both authors are struck by the fact that modern homelessness emerged not during an economic downturn but during a period of general prosperity. There's even some modest agreement on the endlessly divisive question of numbers. Blau estimates 735,000 Americans are homeless on a given night, and calls it evidence that something in America is "profoundly wrong." White argues for "a maximum" of 600,000 in a given week, but cautions that this is "not, per se, a true crisis."

The agreements continue: Each book discusses the de-institutionalization of mental patients, and both view it as a disaster. No one can read either book and fail to understand that drugs and alcohol play leading roles in many journeys to the streets. And most interesting of all, both books stress the devastation of the low-income housing market.

Of all the causes of homelessness, this may remain the one that's least understood by the public. Put simply, two decades ago there were more cheap apartments than poor people, but now needy households outnumber cheap apartments by about two to one. White spends many chapters arguing that housing alone is not the problem, but then arrives at a conclusion that seems to take him by surprise: "I must acknowledge that lack of appropriate housing nevertheless is an important contributory factor."