Showing titles in Poverty & Homelessness

An inhumane math pervades this country: even as our government extracts labor and often taxes from undocumented workers, it excludes these same workers from its social safety net. As a result, these essential workers struggle to get their own basic needs met, from healthcare to education, from freedom of association to the ability to drive to work without looking for ICE in the rearview mirror. An undocumented activist and a social scientist come together to tally of the structural costs of undocumented life.

Violent crime is surging, illegal drug use is off the charts, there is a daily invasion occurring at the southern border, the economy is in the toilet, and China and other adversaries are exploiting American weaknesses to bring the U.S. to its knees. How did this happen? And more importantly, why does it continue to get worse? Take a close look at today’s Democratic Party power brokers and you’ll quickly realize most of them share one thing in common: California.

In many ways, the story of the anchor-outs is the story of being poor in America. Examining profit-driven policies that exacerbate the contemporary housing crisis, Lost at Sea weaves together stories from within the anchorage alongside the rich history of the region, spanning from the Gold Rush era to the devastating fire of 1906. From a contemporary vantage point, it delves into the intense conflicts that arise between the anchor-outs and the affluent hillside communities which seek to dismantle the community for financial and recreational purposes.

As one of the nation’s leading anti-poverty organizers and moral voices, Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis explores the largely untold history of poor people’s movements in the United States and traces her own journey through some of the most significant anti-poverty struggles of the past thirty years. In this book, Theoharis introduces us to the people leading the movement to end poverty.

The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.

Aged 15, Lorna was living on the streets of Soho, trying to avoid abuse and rape whilst battling an addiction to heroin. She worked as an escort and a stripper, lost custody of her daughter, and relapsed multiple times. But, somehow, and unlike most of the people imprisoned by the streets, Lorna didn't just survive but she flew.

Atossa Abrahamian traces the rise of the hidden globe to thirteenth-century Switzerland, where poor cantons marketed the commodity they had—bodies, in the form of mercenary fighters. Following its evolution around the world, she reveals how prize-winning economists, eccentric theorists, visionary statesmen, and consultants masterminded its export in the form of free trade zones, flags of convenience, offshore detention centers where immigrants languish in limbo, and charter cities controlled by by foreign governments and multinational foreign corporations—and even into outer space.

Kevin Fagan’s The Lost and the Found, set in San Francisco—one of the wealthiest cities in America—takes an empathic, character-driven approach to exploring the human side of what’s behind the homelessness epidemic. An award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee who has covered homelessness for decades and spent extensive time on the streets for his reporting, Fagan experienced it himself as a young man and brings a deep understanding to the crisis.

From the bestselling author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, a powerful portrayal of American homelessness that follows a single mother of six in Los Angeles courageously struggling to keep her family together and her children in school amidst the devastating housing crisis.

Christmas 1975 and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody is riding high in the charts. In a residential street just outside Cardiff a loud knocking breaks the stillness of the evening. When Rob Parsons, a young lawyer, opens his door, he finds a homeless man standing before him, clutching a bag of belongings and a frozen chicken. A Knock at the Door is the true story of this homeless man who entered the home of a young couple, became a dustman and lived as part of their family for over forty-five years until his death.

Conservative think tanks like the Manhattan Institute disseminate anti-homeless myths in the media, legislatures, and the larger culture, claiming that our homeless neighbors cause their own predicament and that the best we can do is manage the problem. Drawing on her deep legal knowledge, policy expertise, and decades of frontline service, Mary Brosnahan cuts through the misinformation to deliver two important messages: that homelessness ultimately stems from a lack of investment in affordable housing; and that the greatest myth of all is that we should have no hope.

Journalist Alison Owings slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism surrounding San Francisco’s Tenderloin to reveal a harrowing and life-affirming account of Del Seymour—whose addiction led him into eighteen years of homelessness, pimping, and drug dealing. Once sober, he started Tenderloin Walking Tours and later Code Tenderloin, the remarkable organization teaching homeless, recovering addicts, sex workers, dealers, ex-felons, and other marginalized people how to get and keep a job.

The Myth That Made Us exposes how false narratives—of a supposedly post-racist nation, of the self-made man, of the primacy of profit- and shareholder value—maximizing for businesses, and of minimal government interference—have been used to excuse gross inequities and to shape and sustain the US economic system that delivers them. Jeff Fuhrer argues that systemic racism continues to produce vastly disparate outcomes and that our brand of capitalism favors doing little to reduce disparities.

Unlock the harrowing reality of prison life and delve into the intricate world of inmate healthcare with Behind Bars. This comprehensive eBook ventures beyond the metal bars and into the heart of the global prison healthcare system, spotlighting the glaring issues and pioneering solutions that dictate the health and well-being of incarcerated individuals. Start with an enlightening Introduction to Prison Healthcare, where you'll gain a robust understanding of the history and evolution of healthcare policies within prison walls. Learn about the varied healthcare systems implemented across ...

Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets unites the causes of animal welfare and social justice, moving between Weise's story and that of the US rescue movement: from the dog's twentieth-century transition from property to family to the rise of the no-kill campaign to stop shelter euthanasia and the contradictions that hampered those efforts.

Do you want to know what its like to be homeless in America? "Homeless: A Day In The Life" is a harrowing tale of what one homeless veteran goes through in a single day. It's an engrossing account of his begging, searching through the garbage for his food and anything he can sell, confronting the police, trying to get into a shelter, and staying away from the "bum bashing" violent gangs. He drinks secondhand coffee, smokes cigarette butts, begs with a cardboard sign, and sleeps out in the open. You've seen him a thousand times, on street corners, sidewalks and stoplights, asking you to help...

One of the most pernicious and persistent myths in the United States is the association of Black skin with poverty. Though there are forty million more poor white people than Black people, most Americans, both Republicans and Democrats, continue to think of poverty—along with issues like welfare, unemployment, and food stamps—as solely a Black problem. Why is this so? What are the historical causes? And what are the political consequences that result?

The New Breadline is a call to action on the issues of food aid, food security and climate justice, told from the frontlines of hunger. Jean-Martin Bauer eloquently dissects inequity and racism in the humanitarian system, drawing on his Haitian childhood and his career as an aid worker, asking: when decisions about food are being made, who isn't at the table?

This is the gripping, autobiographical true story of Richard Arsenault, television editor for Ellen and American Idol, and his wife Eva, as they faced this very nightmare. Despite his work making millions for others and helping create profitable popular television series, Richard and Eva found themselves homeless after reporting fraud. “You’ve got to have faith, not fear.” These reality television creators experienced "reality" firsthand as their new job in Florida evaporated, forcing them to survive with no money, no support, and no roof.

As we recover through the reality of a global pandemic, we face into a severe cost of living crisis. We live in a time of great uncertainty. More people are being pushed into poverty. The gap between the richest and poorest is growing wider. We are, perhaps, more divided than we have ever been. Our public services are overwhelmed. Citizens are fed up.Our society is sick. What can we do? We must allow ourselves to feel the pain of our reality, be outraged, challenge the inevitability of the status quo and create moral alternative economies of a reimagined future.