Resources

Many different organizations study the homeless and the poor. Notable among them for their many large studies on homelessness is the Urban Institute. This organization's ongoing studies of the homeless are among the largest and most comprehensive in the United States. Their publications were a major source of information for this volume, especially: The 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients: A Comparison of Faith-Based and Secular Non-Profit Programs (2002), America's Homeless II: Populations and Services (2000), Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve—National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (December 1999), and On the Bottom Rung: A Profile of Americans in Low-Income Working Families (October 2000).

Three other excellent sources of information on the national homeless population are the National League of Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions. The publication The State of America's Cities 2004: The Annual Opinion Survey (National League of Cities, 2004) contains valuable data on the scope of urban homelessness and how cities and regions try to deal with it. Hunger and Homelessness Survey: A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2004) and 2004 Snap Shot Survey of the Homeless (Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, 2004) also provide a great deal of information on the homeless population.

The many organizations that advocate for the homeless and their issues are also crucial sources for this book. The National Coalition for the Homeless is certainly one of the most important of these organizations. Their publication Illegal to Be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States (2004) is particularly recommended. The National Low Income Housing Coalition is another advocacy organization with useful information on homelessness, including Out of Reach: The Growing Gap between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States (September 2000) and Rental Housing for America's Poor Families: Farther Out of Reach Than Ever, 2002 (2002).

Applied Survey Research, Economic Policy Institute, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Health Care for the Homeless, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, Millennial Housing Commission, National Multi Housing Council, and the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty all provide extensive coverage of important aspects of the housing and homelessness issues.

The federal government, though it has done relatively few studies on the homeless since the 1980s, remains the premier source of facts on many issues closely related to homelessness, including poverty, employment, welfare, and housing. Some particularly excellent sources of information from the U.S. Census Bureau are: Emergency and Transitional Shelter Population: 2000 (October 2001), Historical Poverty Tables (October 2001), Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003 (August 2004), Poverty in the United States: 2001 (September 2002), and Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2004-2005 (2004). Other publications of the federal government include: Household Data Annual Averages (Department of Labor, 2004), The Employment Situation: February 2005 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2005), Homelessness: Improving Program Coordination and Client Access to Programs (General Accounting Office, March 2002), Fair Market Rents for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program, Fiscal Year 2005 (Department of Housing and Urban Development, February 2005), and Rural Housing Service: Opportunities to Improve Management (General Accounting Office, June 2003). In addition to these specific publications, Thomson Gale recommends that any-one who is interested in homelessness and related issues make use of the latest reports from the Census Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.