A Few Shelters Here and There

It’s hard to say anything negative about shelters when municipal and state budgets everywhere are being cut. The last thing you want to do is give some bureaucrat the excuse to decide, “Shelters can be awful places, so let’s stop funding them.” And no one wants to...

Problems with Numbers

Maria Foscarinis is founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. (Her complete biography is found at the NLCHP website.) She calls for a commitment to the principle that “in a country as wealthy as ours,...

The Homeless Shelter and the City Council

For the sociologically inquisitive, the headline “Bonne Terre Council meets about homeless shelter” (link is ours) is irresistible. Knowing nothing whatsoever about this city in Missouri, except that its name means “good earth,” a person can easily imagine...

Sleep Loss a Pervasive and Underrated Problem

It’s easy enough to glance at the news headlines and find examples of savage treatment, although, fortunately, the number of individuals who have been beaten or set on fire is relatively small. There is another cruelty, less extreme than physical assault, but it...

No Sit/No Lie: Troxell’s Testimony

Members of House the Homeless protest at an Austin City Council meeting to consider changes to the City’s “No Sit/No Lie” ordinance. The following is the testimony of Richard R. Troxell, president of House the Homeless, Inc., before the Health and...