Review of "No Longer Homeless: How the Ex-Homeless Get and Stay Off the Streets", by David Wagner with Gemma Atticks, 2018. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, cloth.
Lately, I have received several books to review from this publisher and am honored by that. However, like some of their other books, this one has a title that does not really represent what is actually inside the book. This book is really more about how the subjects became homeless to begin with and what they did to find help and resources. It is much less about getting off and staying off the streets.
Professor Wagner presents information about subjects he has studied in both small-town Maine and downtown Los Angeles. As in all my reviews, I try to let the reader get most of the content and I just comment on my perspective on what is here.
There are some things I really liked about the book. First, there is a good grounding in both Putnam (connecting people and connecting to increase social capital) and Goffman (huge stigma of homelessness that many people, including the homeless, struggle with during discussions, planning solutions, delivering services, and trying to find more financial resources for what is needed). Second, I liked the author’s attention to “housing first” (p. 65) and the importance of it in helping most homeless persons – though not all. Housing first refers to getting homeless persons into a decent dwelling before even trying to solve any other issues and challenges.
I am a huge fan of the housing first approach and feel very frustrated more people do not try to understand it and do not try to make use of it more often. It is so very clear to me that I have trouble remaining patient when people raise the usual foolish objections and concerns – including the fact that they are too cheap to pay out money to make the thing work.
There are also some things I really disliked about the book, the main one being the problem on the medical model. The author insists that not all homeless people have medical issues (e.g., drug addiction, disabilities, mental illness) and then goes on to talk about the subjects studied focusing almost 100% on persons who have various medical issues and in some cases more than one.
I also have a problem with the lack of objectivity at points. This author has opinions about neoliberals and attacks on programs (p. 85). If that is not a problem for the reader, then more power to you.
There are all kinds of reasons (and combinations of reasons) people are homeless. This book misses the mark by talking only about persons with medical problems and not about persons with other issues or predicaments – or about other angles of homelessness.
As a book that misses the mark, it is still not a total loss. I would have to say it is only of value to someone wanting to read about how persons with addictions and other medical issues became homeless and where they went for a while. It does not live up to its title and does not discuss a wide enough range of homeless persons.
I would give this book a title more like “Becoming Homeless and Where to Find Help” or something like “Some Cases of Descent into Homelessness and Ascent into Finding Resources.” More books encouraging people to fund and use housing first as a general and overall model are needed. This book does embrace that approach.