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A collection of experiences told by homeless individuals and families from all over the country, discussing street life, crises or processes that caused their homelessness, and solutions these people are working on to support themselves

Each of these two excellent works permits readers to empathize with a wide variety of homeless Americans by ``listening'' to their thoughts as revealed to the authors. Snow and Anderson focus on the people of the street subculture of Austin, Texas, between fall 1984 and summer 1986 (revisited in 1989 and early 1990). They also did extensive research, reflected in the endnotes and bibliography, and collected data from interviews, agencies and institutions. VanderStaay talked with homeless Americans across the country, recording their story in different physical contexts--temporary indoor and outdoor shelters and half-way houses. He interspersed topically arranged collections of narrative material with commentary. Both books emphasize the swelling of the numbers of homeless during the 1990s and concur that there are myriad related underlying conditions, including a change in the United States economy from industrial to service jobs; reduction of low-income housing units; stagnation of the minimum wage; absence of family support; and cuts in social program benefits. Thoughtful and readable, these complementary books are recommended for academic and larger public library social science collections.-- Suzanne Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred Copyright 1993 Cahners Business Information.