A personal account of a program of research on homelessness and poverty spanning the past 20 years is provided, with a focus on the many methodological, practical, and ethical difficulties encountered. Interesting discoveries and enjoyable aspects of the research process are also presented. Several role conflicts that arose for the researcher in…

This paper reviews and evaluates the literatures on children in families that are homeless and on adolescents who are homeless on their own. After presenting several emerging theoretical approaches, we propose a broad ecological-developmental perspective that recognizes that, although persons in these groups often lack resources and experience…

To distinguish the homeless from the housed poor, 144 adults were randomly sampled from several sites and classified into 3 groups: the currently homeless, the previously homeless, and the never-homeless poor. The homeless group was less likely to be receiving public benefits and more likely to experience substance abuse and violence. (RJM)