ABSTRACT
A lthough it can be convincingly argued that in recent years, the legitimacy of the wel-fare state in the United States has been subjected to an unrelenting attack, it is clear that social policy toward homeless people, generally, and homeless children and youth, specifically, reflects larger contradictions intrinsic to the nature of that entity. It is clear that the state has an expressed interest in limiting the political and economic costs of alleviating poverty so as to protect those market forces that contribute to its creation, since those forces concurrently allow privileged elites to maintain and perpetuate their economic position. On the other hand, until recently, the state has also viewed it beneficial to claim some responsibility for reducing the effects of poverty and in so doing, communicate a sense of mission that masks its other inherently coercive policies. The contradiction has usually been resolved through protecting market forces by proposing short-term solutions that do little to threaten status quo practice (Blau 1992). While even short-term solutions are now being rejected by the political right, the justification for abandoning those in need remains the same.
