Sociology 498: Homelessness: readings

Required Reading

There are five very different books to read for the course. These will be the main focus of our class discussions. You must read carefully and then analyze what you've read. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What are the author's main conclusions (especially causal conclusions)?
2. What evidence does the author provide that supports each conclusion? Can you see any weaknesses in that evidence?
3. Frame a counter-thesis for each of the author's conclusion that contradicts the author but is still plausible.

We will be interested in how the authors' ideas agree and disagree with each other. When we come to the later authors, you must always ask yourself how this agrees with or disagrees with our earlier authors. What causes this disagreement? Does one analysis strike you as better than another? Is there a way to reconcile the apparently contradictory conclusions?

• Rossi, Down and Out in America. (with reading questions).
• HUD, Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve (no reading questions) yet.
• Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am. (with reading questions).
• Jencks, The Homeless. (with reading questions).
• O'Flaherty, Making Room. (with reading questions).