Description
Book SynopsisWhy did the rate of homelessness remain at significant levels while the US economy was supposedly booming and hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in the homeless sheltering industry? Drawing upon five years of ethnographic fieldwork in a homeless shelter in Northampton, Massachusetts, Lyon-Callo argues that homelessness must be understood within the context of increasing neoliberal policies, practices, and discourses. As advocates, activists, policy makers, and homeless people focused attention on market-based and individualized practices of reform and governance, collective efforts that challenged an economy dependent on low wage jobs, declining housing affordability, and the dismantling of the social safety net were marginalized and ignored. Homelessness continued, despite, and partly due to, the limitations of the neoliberal approach.
Combining the rich detail of an ethnographic study with the systemic examination of political economic studies, this book offers a v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Introduction: Poverty and Homelessness * The Political-Economic Context * Medicalizing Homelessness * Shelter Statistics and the Silencing of Systemic Concerns * The Non-Compliant Homeless: Ariel's Story * Defining the Role of the Sheltering Industry * Helping Homeless Youth * Managing Homelessness * Reflections on an Engaged Ethnography References Index
