America's Homeless: Numbers, Characteristics, and Programs That Serve Them (Urban Institute Report, 89-3)

Drawing on a nationally representative sample of interviews with homeless people who use services and with service providers in several large cities, the authors explore the efforts of various states and localities to provide emergency services to homeless people, to help them get out of homelessness, and to prevent homelessness. They find that services and programs to help people work their way out of their homelessness and to prevent homelessness are not well developed, and that the level of interest in finding solutions and the levels of funding to create these solutions vary greatly from state to state.