A Street is Not a Home: Solving America's Homeless Dilemma.

• Author: Whitman, David

A Street Is not a Home: Solving America's Homeless Dilemma

Robert Coates, an energetic San Diego municipal court judge, wants everyone to know that the homeless problem can be solved. His new book, A Street is Not a Home, could prove to be the most comprehensive, well-read entry in a burgeoning literature on how to help the homeless, since the author--with the aid of a foundation grant--hias arranged to send copies to 9,000 policymakers, including every U.S. senator and congressman and every city manager in the country. Ultimately, though, Coates's treatise may do little to help public officials, despite its considerable common sense and massive underpinning of research. He has done a commendable job of distilling examples of model p rograms that successfully help the homeless. But he has done a poor job of explaining why the overall homeless aid system continues to fail, even in the face of a mountain of research that has shown for several years how it should be reformed.

Coates's prescription for helping the homeless--throw everything but the kitchen sink at them--is better than it sounds. In the judge's view, there isn't "one solution" to homelessness because those living in the streets and shelters are a diverse, alienated, troubled, and extremely impoverished group. As Coates reports, about a third of urban homeless adults are severely mentally ill, another third are alcohol or drug abusers, and about 1 in 10 are ex-convicts.

His numbers on ex-convicts and substance abusers are actually on the low side, but they all go toward making the same point: The homeless need more than roofs over their heads or cheap apartments to right their lives. for without the social services, rehabilitation, monitoring, and counseling, homeless adults often recycle back to the shelters and the streets. to his credit, Coates generally does not whitewash the homeless by presenting them as modern-day Okies. nor does he mealymouth theh need to tighten commitment laws, which now protect the "rights" of deranged, delusional Americans to live out of garbage cans and street gutters for years on end.

Instead, he contends that rehabilitation and social services should be tailored to reflect different homeless subpopulations. A homeless drunk, he suggests, often requires detoxification, AA meetings, lessons in personal hygiene, help in finding a job, and perhaps a traditional stay in an alcohol-free halfway house. by contrast, homeless women with children may need...