How widespread is homelessness, how did it happen, and what can be done about it? These are the questions explored by Christopher Jencks, one of America's foremost analysts of social problems. Jencks examines the standard explanations and finds that the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill, the invention of crack cocaine, rising joblessness among men, declining marriage rates, cuts in welfare benefits and the desruction of skid row have all played a role. Changes in the housing market have had less impact than many claim, however, and real federal housing subsidies actually doubled during the 1980s. Not confining his mission to studying the homeless, Jencks proposes several practical approaches to helping the homeless.

One of the foremost sociologists of our time makes a fervent appeal for clearer thinking on race, poverty, crime, and the underclass.

The essays in this book try to separate the truth about poverty, social dislocation, and changes in America family life from the myths that have become part of contemporary folklore. These essays also show the reasons for poverty among children, demonstrate that the main issue is not so much a growth in the size of the underclass as the persistence of poverty decades after the country thought it had addressed the problem, and they point out the paradox of poverty in a wealthy nation will continue until society makes greater efforts to provide all citizens with improved educational and economic opportunities as well as adequate income maintenance in times of need.