Developing the Case Management Relationship with Seriously Mentally Ill Homeless Individuals

Starting in the late 1970s, a number of factors contributed to what has been called a new homelessness in America; these include changes in the economy that affected poor people negatively, a loss of affordable housing, and, for people with disabilities, a lack of access to entitlement income. In contrast to old homeless people (typically males over forty years of age living in isolated skid-row sections of American cities), new homeless people are younger, poorer because of a reduced capacity or opportunity to obtain and retain paid work, more visible, and more likely to be members of racial minorities.