ABSTRACT
This chapter presents current social policy and programs for the homeless. The "classic" response to the problem of homelessness in urban America has been the night-time rescue missions, which for the most part provide emergency housing and food to homeless men. Rescue missions nearly always operate using only private donations so that as few restrictions as possible are placed upon the day-to-day operations of the facility. Transitional service providers are generally funded by a variety of private and governmental organizations in order to meet the different service requirements of the homeless. Policy and programs are often categorized in terms of the pattern of homelessness. Two ways of classifying homeless services are common; the first is a temporal classification and the second is emergency intervention versus prevention. Since the 1980s the role of federal and state governmental agencies has increased steadily.
