ABSTRACT
Newsweek magazine ran a "My Turn" essay in 1986 by Stuart Bykofsky, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, entitled "No heart for the homeless". One memorable passage in the essay referred to the homeless as "the drunk, the addicted, and the just plain shiftless". This chapter explores the issues in a qualitative study of homeless men in First Steps, a Twelve Step recovery program that operates out of the Men's Pavilion at the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida. First Steps members used the terms Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) interchangeably, showing little knowledge of any difference between the two programs. The chapter discusses the barriers to traditional AA participation and recovery faced by First Steps men. First Steps men collectively experienced four major problems, namely: identification as alcoholics, sponsorship, step work and time constraints in achieving and maintaining sobriety through their membership in AA.
