Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco

Abstract

When homelessness reemerged in American cities during the 1980s at levels not seen since the Great Depression, it initially provoked shock and outrage. Within a few years, however, what had been perceived as a national crisis came to be seen as a nuisance, with early sympathies for the plight of the homeless giving way to compassion fatigue and then condemnation. Debates around the problem of homelessness—often set in terms of sin, sickness, and the failure of the social system—have come to profoundly shape how homeless people survive and make sense of their plights. This book depicts the lives of homeless men in San Francisco and analyzes the influence of the homelessness industry on the streets, in the shelters, and on public policy. The book shows some of the diverse ways that men on the street in San Francisco struggle for survival, autonomy, and self-respect. Drawing on five years of fieldwork, this ethnography of men living on the streets of the most liberal city in America, this book, makes clear that the way we talk about issues of extreme poverty has real consequences for how we address this problem—and for the homeless themselves.