Rachel and Her Children (32 page)
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Authors: Jonathan Kozol
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Ambitious plans that dwarf immediate concerns:
New York Times
, April 17 and 30, 1986; December 24, 1986.
Newsweek
, December 1, 1986. Early on, the writer says, “I felt pity for those in the streets…. I’m now deaf to people in the street. I’m not happy about it, but there it is…. Tell me why they are allowed to make the street their home—day and night, hot and cold—when I can’t park a car at the curb without paying a meter. How is that possible?”
Boston University student and response:
Boston Phoenix
, December 30, 1986.
This page
Losing Ground
, by Charles Murray, above.
The Needs of Strangers
, by Michael Ignatieff, above.
“No excuses are good enough …”
New York Times
, Editorial, November 6, 1985. According to the “Monthly Report,” CIS, June 1987, there were 194 families in the Holland Hotel on June 30, 1987.
ECONOMIES OF SCALE
This page
Remembrance and Poverty: The Road to Potter’s Field
, by Judith C. Berck, National Coalition for the Homeless, May 1986. See also
New York Times
, August 8, 1987.
SPECIAL RELEVANCE
BOOKS
The Unsheltered Woman: Women and Housing in the 80’s
, ed. by Eugenie Ladner Birch. New Brunswick: Center for Urban Policy Research, 1985.
Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change
, by Marian Wright Edelman. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Everything in Its Path: Destruction of Community in the Buffalo Creek
Flood
, by Kai T. Erikson. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.
Homelessness in America: A Forced March to Nowhere
, by Mary Ellen Hombs and Mitch Snyder. Washington, D.C.: Community for Creative Non-violence, 1986.
The Faces of Homelessness
, by Marjorie Hope and James Young. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath & Co., 1986.
The Needs of Strangers: An Essay on Privacy, Solidarity, and the Politics of
Being Human
, by Michael Ignatieff. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
Family and Nation
, by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
Signal Through the Flames: Mitch Snyder and America’s Homeless
, by Victoria Rader. Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1986.
Blaming the Victim
, by William Ryan. New York: Pantheon Books, 1971.
Women and Children Last: The Plight of Poor Women in Affluent America
, by Ruth Sidel. New York: Viking Penguin, 1986.
Toward the Twenty-first Century, Housing in New York City
, by Carol Felstein and Michael A. Stegman, The Commission on the Year 2000, New York, 1987.
Private Lives/Public Spaces: Homeless Adults on the Streets of New York City
, by Ellen Baxter and Kim Hopper, Community Service Society of New York, 1981.
One Year Later: The Homeless Poor in New York City, 1982
, by Kim Hopper, Ellen Baxter, Stuart Cox, Lawrence Klein, Community Service Society of New York, 1982.
Struggling to Survive in a Welfare Hotel
, by John H. Simpson, Margaret Kilduff, C. Douglass Blewett, Community Service Society of New York, 1984.
Hardship in the Heartland: Homelessness in Eight U.S. Cities
, by Dan Salerno, Kim Hopper, Ellen Baxter, Community Service Society of New York, 1984.
The Making of America’s Homeless: From Skid Row to New Poor, 1945–1984
, by Kim Hopper and Jill Hamberg, Community Service Society of New York, 1984.
New York City’s Poverty Budget: An Analysis of the Public and Private Expenditures Intended to Benefit the City’s Low-Income Population in Fiscal 1983
, by David A. Grossman and Geraldine Siolka, Community Service Society of New York, 1984.
The Changing Face of Poverty: Trends in New York City’s Population in Poverty: 1960–1990
, by Emanuel Tobier, Community Service Society of New York, 1984.
Alternatives to the Welfare Hotel: Using Emergency Assistance to Provide Decent Transitional Housing for Homeless Families
, by Victor Bach and Renee Steinhagen, Community Service Society of New York, 1987.
1933/1983—Never Again
, by Mario Cuomo, National Governors’ Association Task Force on the Homeless, Washington, D.C., 1983.
No Place Like Home: A Report on the Tragedy of Homeless Children and Their Families in Massachusetts
, by Ellen Gallagher, Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth, Boston, 1986.
Room to Spare but Nowhere to Go
, by Harrison J. Goldin, Office of the Comptroller, New York, 1987.
The Federal Response to the Homeless Crisis
, 3rd Report by the Committee
on Government Operations, Ninety-ninth Congress, Washington, D.C., April 1985.
The Search for Shelter
, by Nora Richter Greer, The American Institute of Architects, Washington, D.C., 1986.
Increasing Hunger and Declining Help: Barriers to Participation in the Food Stamp Program
, Physician Task Force on Hunger in America, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, 1986.
HUD Report on Homelessness—II
, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Development of the Committee on Banking, Finance and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-ninth Congress, Washington, D.C., December 4, 1985.
A Shelter Is Not a Home, Report of the Manhattan Borough President’s Task Force on Housing for Homeless Families
, commissioned by David Dinkins, New York, 1987.
Where Do You Go from Nowhere?
by the Health and Welfare Council of Central Maryland, Maryland Department of Human Resources, Baltimore, 1986.
Perchance to Sleep: Homeless Children Without Shelter in New York City
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1984.
Single Room Occupancy Hotels: Standing in the Way of the Gentry
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1985.
A Crying Shame: Official Abuse and Neglect of Homeless Infants
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1985.
An Embarrassment of Riches: Homelessness in Connecticut
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1985.
Cruel Brinksmanship Revisited: The Winter of 1985–86
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1986.
Mid-America in Crisis: Homelessness in Des Moines
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1986.
Remembrance and Poverty: The Road to Potter’s Field
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1986.
National Neglect/National Shame: America’s Homeless: Outlook Winter 1986–87
, National Coalition for the Homeless, New York, 1986.
Stemming the Tide of Displacement: Housing Policies for Preventing Homelessness
, Joint Report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, Community Action for Legal Services, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, New York, 1986.
Report of the Committee on General Welfare on the Homeless Crisis
, New York City Council, January 22, 1987.
A State of Emergency: Hunger in the Empire State
, New York State Committee Against Hunger, New York, 1985.
The Summer Hunger Crisis
, New York State Committee Against Hunger, New York, 1985.
Status of Black New York Report
, New York Urban League, 1984.
National Growth in Homelessness: Winter 1986 and Beyond: A Follow-up Report
, The Partnership for the Homeless, New York, 1986.
The Homeless: Overview of the Problem and the Federal Response
, by Karen Spar and Monique C. Austin, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, September 1984.
Homelessness in America’s Cites; Ten Case Studies
, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Washington, D.C., 1984.
The Growth of Hunger, Homelessness and Poverty in America’s Cities in 1985
, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Washington, D.C., 1986.
A Status Report on Homeless Families in America’s Cities
, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Washington, D.C., 1987.
Homelessness: A Complex Problem and the Federal Response
, U.S. General Accounting Office, Washington, D.C., 1985.
The National Health Care for the Homeless Program: The First Year
, by James D. Wright, Eleanor Weber-Burdin, Janet W. Knight, Julie A. Lam, Social and Demographic Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1987.
The initial version of this book was written with the help of Debby Stone and its final version with the help of Carol Porter. Gage Cogswell typed the book in its successive stages, a grueling task for which I cannot offer adequate thanks.
Throughout this process I have relied upon the research skills, good taste and calm advice of Tisha Graham. For her meticulous attention to questions of accuracy in New York City, I owe her special gratitude.
The book has been read at various times by Ruth Sidel, Roger Boshes, Laurie Stark, Kim Hopper, David Beseda, Gretchen Buchenholtz, and Diana Cooper. Robert Altman, legal aide to the New York City Council’s Committee on the Homeless, and Scott Rosenberg of the Legal Aid Society have been helpful in the clarification of important details. Keith Summa of the National Coalition for the Homeless, Jacqueline Pitts of the Community Service Society of New York, and several officials of the New York City Human Resources Administration have also been of help in clarifying questions on welfare procedures in New York.
My special thanks go to Belle Newton, Cassie Schwerner, and my editor, Jim Wade.
Most essential were the trust and openness of residents
of homeless shelters and some of the health professionals and social workers who are in contact with them daily. I regret that residents of the Martinique Hotel cannot be named within this book; but, for their willingness to share their stories with a stranger, I am grateful.
J
ONATHAN
K
OZOL
is the National Book Award–winning author of
Death at an Early Age, Rachel and Her Children, Savage Inequalities, Amazing Grace
, and
The Shame of the Nation
. He has been working with children in inner-city schools for more than 40 years.
A humane
,
dramatic challenge
to our nation to
fulfill the promise
made to all our
youngest citizens
“A passionate plea to integrate schools
. Jonathan Kozol’s latest book shines a spotlight on poor, minority children, sabotaged and isolated by an educational system tilted to slight them.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A vividly written account from the frontlines
of ‘apartheid education’ … a damning analysis of education in modern America. After reading
The Shame of the Nation
, it is impossible not to share [Kozol’s] outrage.”
—Chicago Tribune
“
Segregation is back
, and only a writer of Jonathan Kozol’s wisdom and passion can assess its terrible price, one child at a time. It isn’t easy, but before we can craft a solution, we have to feel the shame.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich
The Shame of the Nation
/ 1-4000-5245-9 / $14.95 paper ($21.00 CAN)
Available from Three Rivers Press wherever books are sold
.
THREE RIVERS PRESS • NEW YORK
Publisher’s Note: The case histories in this book are taken from actual interviews and research. The relevant facts are real, but names and other identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals.
Copyright © 1988, 2006 by Jonathan Kozol
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 1988.
Portions of this work originally appeared in
The New Yorker
in a slightly different form.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-307-76419-5
v3.0