This research examines homelessness in two periods of American history: the Great Depression and the present day. The research will set forth the context and background for the subject and then compare the ways in which the state's role has changed (or not) over time with respect to the phenomenon, with reference to how social and political activists have functioned to shape the discourse of the issue.
In The Reluctant Welfare State, Jansson argues that "profound ambivalence toward the victims of social problems has existed in American society since the colonial period" (2000, p. 2). On one hand, Americans as a whole have historically tended to shape a society that reflects a good and wholesome life in general. In part that can be traced to the Preamble of the Constitution, which envisions a just, domestically tranquil society in which the general welfare is promoted and the blessings of liberty are secured for posterity. But that vision has been clouded by the harsh realities implicit in the limited access to resources that many people in America experience. In that regard, Jansson cites the economic and social problems of "immigrants, factory workers, displaced Native Americans and Spanish-speaking persons, and urban residents" (2000, p. 2). Individual and group advocacy efforts have emerged to counter the obstacles to the good life that the economically and socially disadvantaged experience, but the record of involvement and advocacy for the disadvantaged on the part of the government has been far from consistent or uniform. The phenomenon of widespread homelessness is a case in point.
Contemporary homelessness surfaced as a significant issue front in the 1980s, when a number of trends coalesced in a way that gave the phenomenon critical mass. According to Barak, homelessness as a structural feature of society can be linked to transformation of government policy, housing trends, and shifting structures of employment that have ...