A Book Review by Casey

“Confronting Homelessness: Poverty, Politics, and the Failure of Social Policy” by David Wagner with Jennifer Barton-Gilman

I have just finished a very informative book, something that is very much outside the realm of my usual superhero comic books. Homelessness is a problem that we’re all aware of (although I’m sure our awareness varies from person to person).  This book really spells out exactly what the “homeless problem” is.

The main approach taken by the authors centers around a timeline, dating as far back as Medieval  Europe (homelessness is apparently an old problem).  The central focus of the book is the “new” homeless problem of the 1980’s, so the timeline gets a lot more detailed from 1979 to the early 1990s, and then continues on to the present day (the book was first released last July, so it’s pretty up to date).

But the trip through history, while very informative and interesting, is only the structure around which the rest of the writing is built.  Wagner and Barton-Gilman delve into the problem far beyond a mere explanation of historical facts (it should be noted that all of the facts are referenced in the form of end-of-chapter notes and a bibliography).  They also get into a lot of the “why” and “how” the problem of the 1980’s came about (as well as certain other periods, such as The Great Depression among others).

The “why”’s and “how”’s involve a lot of factors, many of which I wouldn’t have known about had I not read this book.  One of the more obvious reasons why we have so many homeless people is simply because we live in a country where the rich tend to get richer and the poor tend to get poorer.   The factors that I wouldn’t have thought of include deinstitutionalization, which put a lot of mentally ill people out on the streets without a place to live and without the ability to earn a living, as well the fact that many small, one room, apartments were demolished in the 1970s, as landlords and property managers could get a lot more money from renters by replacing small cheap apartments with more expensive and luxurious ones.

And how did this become such a “new” problem in the 1980’s?  The authors get into many contributors, one of the biggest ones being politics, and a the “construction” of the problem by Democrats to be used as a weapon against the Reagan administration, who was doing a lot budget cutting in the early 1980’s.

Beyond the informative discussions of the problem and its origins, there is also a lot of space devoted to the solutions, or at least the attempted solutions.  A lot of it boils down to the creation of soup kitchens and homeless shelters, which apparently many people thought would eventually end homelessness thirty years ago.  It’s probably obvious to most that it didn’t work, and the authors explain exactly why that is.

One thing that this book does not present is a hard and fast solution.  However, if one were to set out to end homeless, this book should be their bible.  Besides getting down to the facts of what the problem is and the many reasons why it has come about, there is a detailed explanation of what DIDN’T work, and what obstacles one would have to overcome to even think about curing this problem (our own government being a huge obstacle, as well as people who aren’t homeless, many of which have negative opinions of the homeless and helping them).

What I’ve talked about here just barely scratches the surface of what you’ll find in these pages.  There is a lot of information on public views, how they’ve changed over the years, advocacy groups and their approaches to solving the problem, political agendas past and present, and much more.  This book really opened my eyes to what an obstacle our own economics and government can be, and how easily the public can be bent by certain politicians, the media, and advocates.

One last thing that I found to be quite interesting, is a discussion towards the end of the book regarding one approach by society to the treatment of  homelessness as a social problem and not an economical problem.  The reality is, that many have approached helping the homeless the same way as the Civil Right’s or Women’s movements.  However, homeless people aren’t simply people who are born homeless (typically), the way people are born with different genders or skin colors.  They don’t necessarily need more rights, they need to not have to live on the streets or in shelters.  This “social problem” approach is only one approach of many, but I thought it was quite interesting.

David Wagner has written several books in the past (I haven’t read any of them, but I sound smarter if I mention them), but this time he took on a co-author, Jennifer Barton-Gilman who is an independent scholar.  I had the pleasure of having both authors attend my wedding, Wagner as a guest and Barton-Gilman as the bride, and I enjoyed the experience very much.

If you’re at all interested in the problem of homelessness (particularly its spike in popularity in the 1980’s), then this book is for you.  Even if you haven’t ever thought much about it, I recommend giving it a read, because it will more than likely open your eyes and give you some new insight to homelessness and parts of our society in general.  Those of you who are not savvy in the field of social work or social sciences need not fear; I have never taken a class given by a social work professor in my life and I didn’t find it hard to read at all.  Except for Chapter Two.  There were several terms in that chapter that I needed some explanation of from my wife.  I also learned cool new words like “recalcitrant”!

This book can be purchased directly from the publisher at:

https://www.rienner.com/title/Confronting_Homelessness_Poverty_Politics_and_the_Failure_of_Social_Policy

Overall, I give this book 4 and a half out of 5 stars.  It loses half a point for not mentioning “Man In The Mirror” as an effect of homelessness on our pop culture.  “We Are The World” is mentioned, but “Man In The Mirror” is a better song.  Have a great weekend, everyone, and happy reading!