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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Policy Shifts In The Massachusetts Response To Family Homelessness, Margaret A. Leonard, Stacy Randell
Policy Shifts In The Massachusetts Response To Family Homelessness, Margaret A. Leonard, Stacy Randell
New England Journal of Public Policy
Massachusetts's response to the tragedy of family homelessness during a period of economic prosperity (1983-1987) is contrasted to a period of economic decline (1988-1992). The article describes the movement toward a structural response in the boom years and its dismantling with the emergence of a "blame the victim" response in the decline years. The roles of state government, advocacy groups, human service providers, private funding sources, academic institutions, and the media, as they influence these responses, are outlined. Interviews with key actors in these groups, group interviews with formerly homeless women, a review of the literature, and the authors' direct …
Homelessness In Boston: The Media Wake Up, Ian Menzies
Homelessness In Boston: The Media Wake Up, Ian Menzies
New England Journal of Public Policy
Why did it take the media so long to "discover" and report on the dramatically rising rates of hunger and homelessness throughout the nation? Did that failure make it easier for presidential counselor Edwin Meese to declare in December 1983 that allegations of hunger in America were "purely political" and that people who go to soup kitchens do so because the food is free, statements matched a short time later by President Ronald Reagan's claim that people who sleep on grates do so "by choice." In this article, Menzies tells the unfolding story of how hunger and homelessness finally became …