A Qualitative Study of the Impact of State Welfare Reform on Individuals

Although homelessness is not a new problem, the faces of the homeless are changing. For many, the term "homeless person " conjures up the image of a skid row alcoholic. How-ever, the homeless now include unskilled middle-aged males, the chronically mentally ill, and families (Chaiklin, 1985). The reasons for the amplification of homelessness include unem-ployment, insufficient low-cost housing, alcohol and/or drug addiction, mental health deinstitutionalization and the inade-quacy of community-based services. In addition, advocates for the homeless including Mitch Snyder (1986) and Jan Hagen (1986) have argued that federal and state welfare policy changes have served to shift potentially at-risk populations into home-lessness. Hopper and Hamburg (1984) point out that one of the underlying causes of homelessness is the increase in the number of welfare recipients whose benefits were discontinued