URBN PL 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Crack Epidemic, Deindustrialization, Deinstitutionalisation
14 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
Four causes of the homelessness epidemic: declining personal incomes, loss of affordable housing, deep cuts in welfare programs, a large number of people facing personal problems that left them at risk of homelessness. Deindustrialization of society: national economy has shifted from manufacturin to service industries, where wages are lower. The national public housing program was weakened. Structural changes in the welfare system: deinstitutionalization: a plan to empty the asylums treating and housing mentally disable individuals, with the goal to provide treatment in community mental health centers funded by federal government. That didn"t work: federal budget cuts in welfare programs. Explosion of the crack cocaine epidemic, an increased demand for treatment and care of addicts while the number of public treatment slots fell. Change in the scope of criminal justice, from rehabilitation to punishment, incarceration increased, as well as people with a criminal record and limited options to be employed. Rising cost of healthcare and rapid growth of uninsured population.
