I look at the social and political changes that I think contributed most to the spread of homelessness:

• the virtual abolition of involuntary commitment for the mentally ill,
• failure to provide alternative housing for many of those we deinstitutionalized,
• the crack epidemic,
• increased long-term joblessness among working-age men,
• the declining frequency of marriage among women with children,
• reductions in cash welfare benefits, and
• destruction of skid row.

After that I examine some changes to which I assign minor roles:

• families' growing reluctance to shelter their down-at-heel kin,
• changes in the private housing market,
• cutbacks in federal spending for low-income housing, and
• local rent-control ordinances.