Struggling in the Land of Plenty

Anne R. Roschelle is professor of sociology and chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Sociologist Roschelle (SUNY, New Paltz) here examines the rise of familial homelessness in San Francisco during the 1990s. While this case study of the causes and consequences of homelessness focuses on one location, its social policy lessons can be applied nationwide. By illuminating the intersections of race, gender, and class, Roschelle unpacks economic restructuring and urban renewal efforts since the 1960s, in addition to 1990s welfare and public housing reform programs that deeply impacted employment and housing opportunities for low-income families. At the family level, she shows the devastation that domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse play in contributing to ever-increasing rates of homelessness among poor women of color. Her ethnographic portrayals of families also give readers a ground-level view outlining the violence (physical and emotional), stressors, and continued erosion of extended kinship networks associated with the effort to find and maintain safe and affordable housing. The consequences of familial homelessness feed into a cycle of cumulative disadvantage and erect barricades to stable housing. Through her detailed descriptions, the author provides powerful insight into the link between experiences of homelessness and broader structural factors that shape the lives of families.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

• IntroductionChapter 1: San Francisco: The Best City on EarthChapter 2: Home is Where the [Broken] Heart IsChapter 3: The Unraveling Social Safety NetChapter 4: The Tattered Web of KinshipChapter 5: Life’s a Bitch: The Everyday Struggle for SurvivalChapter 6: Paradise Lost: The Lived Experiences of Homeless KidsConclusionReferences