The definitive edition of Catholic Worker cofounder Peter Maurin's Easy Essays, including 74 previously unpublished works Although Peter Maurin is well known among people connected to the Catholic Worker movement, his Catholic Worker co-founder and mentee Dorothy Day largely overshadowed him. Maurin was never the charismatic leader that Day was, and some Workers found his idiosyncrasies challenging. Reticent to write or even speak much about his personal life, Maurin preferred to present his beliefs and ideas in the form of Easy Essays, published in the New York Catholic Worker. Featuring 482 of his essays, as well as 87 previously unpublished ones, this text offers a great contribution to the corpus of twentieth-century Catholic life. At first glance, Maurin's Easy Essays appear overly simplistic and preposterous. But upon further investigation, his essays are much more complex and nuanced. Packed with demanding ideas meant to convey dense information and encourage the listener to ponder different ways to understand and interact with reality, his short poetic phrases became his modus operandi for communicating his vision and became a hallmark of his public theology. Each essay contained anywhere from one to ten or more stanzas and were part of a larger arrangement, often titled. Within the larger arrangements were individual essays, which were also titled and arranged in such a manner as to support the overall thesis. Many individual essays were later repeated in slightly altered forms in new arrangements. Previous arrangements were also repeated that omitted or added an essay. Providing scholarly and contextual information for the modern reader, this annotated collection includes more than 350 footnotes which offer a layer of intelligibility that explains Maurin's use of obscure references to historical people and events that would have been common knowledge for readers during the 1930s. When appropriate, the footnotes explain why Maurin chose to cite a person or event. A scholarly Introduction offers a robust synthesis of contemporary scholarship on Maurin and the Catholic Worker that considers radical Catholicism and questions regarding race, ethnicity, religious difference, and gender, because many of Maurin's essays take up these themes. This book shapes the ways Maurin is read in the present day and the ways leftist Catholicism is understood as part of twentieth-century history.

New York Times bestselling author Paul Tough's Whatever It Takes is "one of the best books ever written about how poverty influences learning, and vice versa" (The Washington Post). What would it take? That was the question that Geoffrey Canada found himself asking. What would it take to change the lives of poor children -- not one by one, through heroic interventions and occasional miracles, but in big numbers, and in a way that could be replicated nationwide? The question led him to create the Harlem Children's Zone, a ninety-seven-block laboratory in central Harlem where he is testing new and sometimes controversial ideas about poverty in America. His conclusion: if you want poor kids to be able to compete with their middle-class peers, you need to change everything in their lives -- their schools, their neighborhoods, even the child-rearing practices of their parents. Whatever It Takes is a tour de force of reporting, an inspired portrait not only of Geoffrey Canada but also of the parents and children in Harlem who are struggling to better their lives, often against great odds. Carefully researched and deeply affecting, this is a dispatch from inside the most daring and potentially transformative social experiment of our time.

This book investigates how housing policy changes in Asia since the late 1990s have impacted on housing affordability, security, livability, culture and social development. Using case study examples from countries/cities including China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, the contributors contextualize housing policy development in terms of both global and local socio-economic and political changes. They then investigate how policy changes have shaped and re-shaped the housing wellbeing of the local people and the social development within these places, which they argue should constitute the core purpose of housing policy. This book will open up a new dimension for understanding housing and social development in Asia and a new conceptual perspective with which to examine housing which, by nature, is culture-sensitive and people-oriented. It will be of interest to students, scholars and professionals in the areas of housing studies, urban and social development and the public and social policy of Asia.

As the tragedy of the Grenfell tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing, private finance initiatives and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers. Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. He has worked for the last decade with residents groups in council regeneration projects across London. As residents have been shifted out of 60s and 70s social housing to make way for higher rent paying newcomers, they have been promised a higher quality of housing. Councils have passed the responsibility for this housing to private consortia who amazingly have been allowed to self-regulate on quality and safety. Residents have been ignored for years on this and only now are we hearing the truth. Stuart will weave together his research on PFIs, regulation and resident action to tell the whole story of how Grenfell happened and how this could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country. -- .

In 2000, the first social agenda in the history of the European Union was launched, and the endeavor to combat poverty came increasingly to the forefront as a specific area for EU policy cooperation and coordination. Regrettably, however, little progress has been achieved so far, either at the national or European level. On the contrary, the EU's social fabric is under major stress: convergence in national living standards has halted or reversed while progress in terms of poverty reduction in the last decades has been disappointing in most EU Member States. In Europe, despite high social spending and work-related welfare reforms, poverty often remains a largely intractable problem for policymakers and a persistent reality for many European citizens. In Decent Incomes for All, the authors shed new light on recent poverty trends in the European Union and the corresponding responses by European welfare states. They analyze the effect of social and fiscal policies before, during, and after the recent economic crisis and study the impact of alternative policy packages on poverty and inequality. The volume also explores how social investment and local initiatives of social innovation can contribute to tackling poverty, while recognizing that there are indeed structural constraints on the increase of the social floor and difficult trade-offs involved in reconciling work and poverty reduction. Academics and graduate students in comparative social policy, inclusion and anti-poverty policy, sociology, and public economics will find the book to be a particularly helpful resource in their work.

Evidence for the negative effects of segregation and concentrated poverty in America's cities now exists in abundance; poor and underrepresented communities in segregated urban housing markets suffer diminished outcomes in education, economic mobility, political participation, and physical and psychological health. Though many of the aggravating factors underlying this inequity have persisted or even grown worse in recent decades, the level of energy and attention devoted to them by local and national policymakers has ebbed significantly from that which inspired the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s. Marking 50 years since the passage of the Fair Housing and Civil Rights Acts, Facing Segregation both builds on and departs from two generations of scholarship on urban development and inequality. Authors provide historical context for patterns of segregation in the United States and present arguments for bold new policy actions ranging from local innovations to national initiatives. The volume refocuses attention on achievable solutions by providing not only an overview of this timely subject, but a roadmap forward as the twenty-first century assesses the successes and failures of the housing policies inherited from the twentieth. Rather than introducing new theories or empirical data sets describing the urban landscape, Metzger and Webber have gathered the field's first collection of prescriptions for what ought to be done.

This book re-examines the role of urban policy and planning in relation to the housing market in an era of global uncertainty and change. The relationship between planning and the housing market is a contested problem across research, policy, and practice. Problems with housing supply and affordability in many nations have been linked to planning system constraints, while the global financial crisis has raised new questions about the role of urban planning regulation and processes in responding to housing market trends. With reference to international cases from the United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong and Australia, the book examines how different systems of urban planning and governance address complex and dynamic housing market trends. It also offers practical guidance on how urban planning can support an efficient supply of appropriate and affordable homes in preferred locations. A detailed study, which explains and decodes the workings of the planning system and housing market, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of human geography and urban planning, as well as housing policy makers and practitioners. To view Nicole Gurran's related TEDx talk please visit: Housing Crisis? How about housing solutions. TEDx Sydney 2018 (http://bit.ly/2psfpMw)

This book is a critical reflection on the Smart City Mission in India. Drawing on ethnographic data from across Indian cities, this volume assesses the transformative possibilities and limitations of the program. It examines the ten core infrastructural elements that make up a city, including water, electricity, waste, mobility, housing, environment, health, and education, and lays down the basic tenets of urban policy in India. The volume underlines the need to recognize liminal spaces and the plans to make the 'smart city' an inclusive one. The authors also look at maintaining a link between the older heritage of a city and the emerging urban space. This volume will be of great interest to planners, urbanists, and policymakers, as well as scholars and researchers of urban studies and planning, architecture, and sociology and social anthropology.

The great U.S. mortgage crisis was a transformative event that will reverberate for decades across families, neighborhoods, and cities. After years of research on various aspects of the crisis, Dan Immergluck examines what went wrong, identifying the factors that created the fragile housing finance system, which provided fertile ground for calamity. He also examines the federal response to the crisis, including who benefitted most from the response, and how a more effective and fair response could have been formulated. To reduce the incidence of future crises, Immergluck provides a pathway for building a more stable and fair housing finance system that would be less vulnerable to the booms and busts of global finance. Housing finance helps determine access to stable, decent-quality, affordable housing and also affects the geography of housing and educational opportunities. Thus, housing markets shape our communities, our neighborhoods, and our social and economic opportunities. Immergluck's analysis and formulation of a way forward will be of particular interest to those concerned with urban form, neighborhood change and stability, and urban planning and policy, as well as those interested in housing and mortgage markets more generally.

The story of a personal housing crisis that led to a discovery of the true value of home. *'You will marvel at the beauty of this book, and rage at the injustice it reveals' George Monbiot* *'Incredibly moving. To find peace and a sense of home after a life so profoundly affected by the housing crisis, is truly inspirational' Raynor Winn, bestselling author of The Salt Path* Aged thirty-one, Catrina Davies was renting a box-room in a house in Bristol, which she shared with four other adults and a child. Working several jobs and never knowing if she could make the rent, she felt like she was breaking apart. Homesick for the landscape of her childhood, in the far west of Cornwall, Catrina decides to give up the box-room and face her demons. As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now, she resolves to make a tiny, dilapidated shed a home of her own. With the freedom to write, surf and make music, Catrina rebuilds the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. On the border of civilisation and wilderness, between the woods and the sea, she discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a fragile natural world. This is the story of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, grappling with class, economics, mental health and nature. It shows how housing can trap us or set us free, and what it means to feel at home.

Being Homeless presents the stories of homelessness as told from the perspectives of the clients, staff, and a researcher at an emergency shelter. Drawing on in-depth interviews, shelter documents, and historical analysis, the author provides ethnographic data that demonstrate the variety of the experiences and the attitudes of homeless people. This study underscores the necessity for a more comprehensive response to the needs of this group. Being Homeless offers insights, both practical and theoretical, of value to human service providers as well as sociologists.

Youth homelessness increased rapidly during the late 1980s and early 1990s, at a time when street homelessness in particular became increasingly associated in the popular mind with dangerousness and criminality. This book analyzes the construction of homelessness as a social and legal 'problem' and documents young people's own experiences of homelessness, crime and danger. Drawing on the authors' own field work in a range of urban and rural locations, the book addresses themes of home and homelessness, of exclusion and marginality and of risk and urban incivilities.

Informality Revisited offers an overview of recent debates about Latin American government programmes for the formalisation of informal settlements and housing provision in a neo-liberal context. Contributions from Latin American researchers analyse the contradictions in government actions and evaluate the consequences for urban poverty. * Brings together ten leading Latin American researchers in the field of land and housing policy to address the question of informal urban development, particularly in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru * Highlights the interrelationships between the production of formal and informal urban development and demonstrates how economic and legal reforms intended to make the market more effective and profitable have affected the production of urban space * Explores how Latin American governments are applying neo-liberal principles to land and housing policies * Investigates the implications of government actions for the production and commodification of urban land as well as the formalisation of property rights and provision of housing for the urban poor * Contributors draw on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data, including census results and previously unpublished official statistics

This is a study of the organisation and practical operation of the system of poor relief in Emden from the late 15th century to the end of the 16th. The city went through dramatic economic, confessional and constitutional changes during this period and so offers an ideal setting for the study of the emergence and development of a highly organised, multi-jurisdictional system of social welfare in the early modern period. Utilising account books, church council minutes, wills, contracts, correspondence and guild records it focuses on the day-to-day operation of poor relief - how the many diverse institutions actually functioned. As elsewhere in Europe, the Reformation did not immediately result in swift changes in poor relief; the Roman Catholic components of the administration of social welfare were dissolved and replaced gradually. It was only when the vast changes in religious, social and economic life which occurred at the middle of the 16th century forced matters that the methods of relief for the needy were revolutionised. The city was flooded with refugees from the Dutch revolt, there were widespread and severe economic difficulties caused by bad harvests and skyrocketing prices, and the church underwent a period of intense Calvinisation; only then were Reformed institutions and methods introduced. At times, religious arguments dominated the poor relief debate, while at others the social welfare system was barely affected; the effectiveness of the new systems and institutions is illuminated by an analysis of the recipients of relief during the second half of the 16th century.

The Right to Buy has had a massive impact on Housing in the UK for 35 years and in 2015 there were proposals to extend it. But what is the Right to Buy policy, how has it developed and what has its impact been? What evidence is there about the wider and unintended consequences of the policy? How are the proposals to extend the policy in England likely to affect future housing provision and what alternatives are there? In The Right to Buy, Alan Murie provides an authoritative account of the origins, development and impact of the policy across the UK and proposals for its extension in England (and decisions to end it in Scotland and Wales). Presenting up-to-date statistical material the book engages with debates about transfers to private renting, the impact on public expenditure and on the current housing situation, addresses the proposals for new legislation and details the potential impact of these. It is an essential read for anyone interested in this highly topical issue.

This book offers a new understanding of the relationship between family homelessness and health care use. For the majority of poor families who become homeless, the experience is temporary; yet little is known about these families after they are no longer homeless. Studies have shown that families living in shelters have difficulty accessing mainstream health care providers. This research documents for the first time the barriers these families continue to face after they are no longer homeless.

Providing an overview of the literature on homelessness and health care, this book presents detailed descriptions of health, housing conditions, and family histories. The study is unique in its longitudinal perspective -- mothers were interviewed at the time they were requesting shelter and again four years later. This data was compared to data collected from mothers on welfare who had never been homeless. The author analyzes the differences in health care utilization patterns between formerly homeless families and those who had never used the resources of a shelter, and presents policy recommendations in the context of recent changes in welfare policies and the expansion of Medicaid managed care programs.

Los Angeles, California, and Berlin, Germany, have been dubbed homeless capitals for having the largest homeless populations of their respective countries. In Down and Out in Los Angeles and Berlin, Jurgen von Mahs provides an illuminating comparative analysis of the impact of social welfare policy on homelessness in these cities. He addresses the opportunity of people to overcome - or exit - homelessness and shows how Berlin, with its considerable social and economic investment for assisting its homeless has been as unsuccessful as Los Angeles. Drawing on fascinating ethnographic insights, von Mahs shows how homeless people in both cities face sociospatial exclusion - legal displacement for criminal activities, poor shelters in impoverished neighbourhoods, as well as market barriers that restrict reintegration. Providing a necessary wake-up call, Down and Out in Los Angeles and Berlin addresses the critical public policy issues that can produce effective services to improve homeless people's chances for a lasting exit. Jurgen von Mahs is Assistant Professor in Urban Studies at The New School in New York City.

The term 'housing crisis' has, in recent times, been associated with rising foreclosure rates and tottering financial institutions, particularly in the US and Europe. However, in many rapidly urbanizing emerging countries, the housing crisis is about urban poverty, unplanned settlements, overcrowded slums and homelessness. Both these faces of the housing crisis require solutions for housing finance mechanisms and systems that lie at the root of each. A well functioning housing finance system can play an important role in helping to fulfil multiple objectives - promoting social and political stability, enhancing housing market performance, as well as contributing to financial sector stability and development. However, the complex systems within which it is embedded are also vulnerable to risks from multiple sources of market, political, and regulatory failures. This book draws on a wealth of examples from around the world to provide a road map for building more resilient housing finance systems.

This text focuses on the ways that the life chances of homeless people are very much determined by their positions in race, gender and "family values" hierarchies. The author traces the social and spatial consequences of valuing some kinds of people over others, using as a basis her own work on the homelessness in New York. She concludes that homelessness is not simply an economic predicament, but a cultural and moral location.

Young and Homeless in Hollywood examines the social and spacial dynamics that contributed to the construction of a new social imaginary--"homeless youth"--in the United States during a period of accelerated modernization from the mid 1970s to the 1990s. Susan Ruddick draws from a range of theoretical frameworks and empirical treatments that deal with the relationship between placemaking and the politics of social identity.

Integration is now a key expectation within the delivery of health and social care services in the UK and internationally. However, it still remains difficult to achieve and sustain in practice. Based on learning from successful, and unsuccessful, integrated care initiatives, this book is an invaluable guide for those responsible for leading, managing and delivering integrated care across health, social care and housing. Written by an experienced team of researchers who have studied, led and supported integrated care for many years Integrated Care in Practice draws on latest evidence, innovative practice and helpful theory. It provides insights into the common pitfalls that such initiatives can encounter and demonstrates positive approaches to anticipating and responding to such challenges. Throughout, real-case examples are provided, and concepts and models are connected with the realities of day-to-day life for those working within these services. Integrated care is a goal to aspire to - this book helps to explain how we can turn this goal into practical action and positive outcomes.

Through the lens of political economy, this book positions housing as a key factor in understanding social inequality. It does so by drawing on rich empirical evidence from the case of the Chilean housing market. This book provides insights on the articulation between real estate development, housing provision and social inequality based on applied urban economics analyses that illustrate the contradictions of neoliberal urbanism through the case of Chile. For neoliberal urbanism, the good city is not equal for all, it is based on the principle of profitability and benefits from segregation to make capital investment more efficient. The chapters of this book expose how these processes are generated by a political system that allows them rather than by the invisible hand of the market. The book will be of interest to graduate students in urban studies, urban planning, sociology and urban geography. It will also appeal to decision-makers and also to actors in the real estate market seeking to perfect the social benefits of their professional activities, aspiring to generate more egalitarian and just cities.

This book presents a critical analysis of the concept of 'adequate housing'. While the concept of adequate housing is used largely as a normative standard in the protection of housing rights and in the implementation of housing policies, its apparent objectivity and universality have never been questioned by political and legal theory. This book analyses and challenges the understanding of this term in law and politics by investigating its relationship with the idea of 'home'. 'It is necessary to provide them with adequate housing!' It is very common to hear this phrase when dealing with housing poverty, especially in relation to migrants, minorities, indigenous and other subaltern groups are concerned. But what does "adequate housing" mean? This book tackles this issue by proposing a critical analysis of this concept and of its use in the development of housing policies addressing the subaltern group par excellence in Europe, Roma. In so doing, it focuses on the lives of Roma and Sinti in Italy who have been the target of inclusion policies. Highlighting the emotional connection to housing, and dismantling some of the most 'common sense' ideas about Roma, it offers a radical revision of how social justice in the housing sector might be refigured. This book will be invaluable for scholars and students working on relevant themes in socio and critical legal studies, sociology, human rights, urban studies, human geography and Romani studies

* Supplementary reading on a variety of social science and humanities degree courses and some potential interested from reflective housing practitioners