ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s and early 1990s global economic changes led to high levels of poverty, rising unemployment in certain cities or regions or among particular groups, and to a widespread shortage of affordable housing. Any proposed solutions, then, must deal with these issues. In each of the three countries problems vary from region to region, from city to city, and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Accordingly, locally devised, community-based programs are most appropriate. Yet, because homelessness is also a nationwide problem, the federal (or central) government must be involved and must provide sufficient funding on a continuing basis to assure permanent remedies. This is a necessary element in our social contract. Despite the validity of the concept of irreducibly social goods, however, it would be naive to ignore the climate of fiscal restraint in the 1990s. Government expends public funds on questionable defense systems and on bailing out savings and loan companies. But it seems unlikely that major social spending initiatives can be expected. Moreover, "our collective view of what government can and should do for its people is being continually narrowed" by the contented majority who challenge the need for public assistance to the disenfranchised (Galbraith 1992: 30).
