Providing Free Housing to the Homeless- Why Problem Like Homelessness may Be Easier to Solve Than to Manage MALCOLM GLADWELL

Questions

1. What are policymakers' rationales for conceiving homelessness policy primanly in terms of those who are chronically homeless?

2. Bush Administration housing czar Philip an and other proponents of the power-law theory of homelessness hail the provision of rent-free apartments as a way to solve homelessness because people will now have a place they can call home rather than having to sleep in doorways or on subway grates. To what extent does this policy offer a meaningful solution to the array of problems associated with chronic homelessness?

3. What are the implications of politicians' reducing funding for shelters and soup kitchens, the likely consequence as homelessness policy shifts increasingly toward providing housing for the chronically homeless?

4. Why does Gladwell argue that providing rent-free apartments to the chronically homeless is unfair?

5. Do a Web search and identify three cities that are embracing the power law theory of homelessness. What do the results look like so far? Is home-lessness being reduced? If so, to what degree?