Hobos, hustlers, and backsliders
Subtitle: homeless in San Francisco
By: Teresa Gowan.
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press; Univ Of Minnesota Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9780816648696; 9780816669677
Subjects: Homeless persons -- California -- San Francisco; Homeless men -- California -- San Francisco; Homelessness -- California -- San Francisco
Description: Gowan shows some of the diverse ways that men on the street in San Francisco struggle for survival, autonomy, and self-respect. Living for weeks at a time among homeless men--working side-by-side with them as they collected cans, bottles, and scrap metal; helping them set up camp; watching and listening as they panhandled and hawked newspapers; and accompanying them into soup kitchens, jails, welfare offices, and shelters--Gowan immersed herself in their routines, their personal stories, and their perspectives on life on the streets. She observes a wide range of survival techniques, from the illicit to the industrious, from drug dealing to dumpster diving. She also discovered that prevailing discussions about homelessness and its causes--homelessness as pathology, homelessness as moral failure, and homelessness as systemic failure--powerfully affect how homeless people see themselves and their ability to change their situation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Urban ethnography beyond the culture wars; title: Managing homelessness in the United States; title: The street : watch out, San Francisco! Ain't gonna get no peace; title: Moorings : some other kind of life; title: Word on the street : no one loves a loser; title: The new hobos; title: Rabble management : like I need more drugs in my life?; title: The homeless archipelago : a little room for myself; title: The old runaround : class cleansing in San Francisco; title: The road to Nowheresville.