Casey Campbell

Ms. Stinnett
English 12/period 5
23 September 2016

Annotated Bibliography: Views About the Homeless

Research Question: In what way has the homeless population affected our views on societal
norms of the homeless? How do homeless people view the working class?
Doak, Melissa J. The Nature of Homelessness. 2006. Web 15 September 2016.
Summary: The Source mainly focused on the opinions about the homeless and how they have
changed throughout time. People in the 21st century recognized homelessness as a result of
poverty or structural flaws in society. In Earlier times the people blamed them for their own
situation. They felt it was usually a result of laziness, drunkenness or crime. The governments
definition of homelessness was simply someone without a house. What was interesting was how
the National concern about the homeless seemed to come and go and the actions that were taking
to keep them out of certain areas. Park benches were removed in Philadelphia and the homeless
in Florida could actually be jailed for sleeping on the sidewalk
Evaluation: This was a credible source, but the one thing that made in an unreliable source in a
way was the fact that it was published in 2006. Even though the information was outdated it was
still incredibly informative and relevant to the topic. Whether the source was reviewed or not is

unclear. Since the article was based on facts there werent any biased comments. Every
paragraph served a factual purpose. This source was helpful to the croup because it provided
statistics and charts based on the homeless population and the ethnicity percentages. It also
contributed to answering the research question because it was unbiased and gave solutions to
decrease the homeless population. Overall this source was very influential. The homeless are an
unfortunate sight. It doesnt matter how they got there they still need help to recover. Life may
not be fare but everyone deserves a second chance.
Wild, Timothy. Mental Illness Contributes to Homelessness. Homelessness Ed. Tamara
Thompson

Detroit Greenhaven Press 2012. Opposing viewpoints. Rpt from Homelessness

and Mental Illness a Closer Look.

Web 20 September 2016
Summary: Some of the important information provided by this source includes two reasons for
people being homeless. These include Market Failure, which is the tendency for already
vulnerable people to become further marginalized. The second reason was Deinstitutionalization
which is the movement to remove mentally ill people from restrictive institutional settings in
favor of them living in a community. This was due the lack of proper community support and
expensive housing. Several other factors were also stated.
Evaluation: The source is pretty reliable. Even though it was written in 2012 its not too outdated
and all of the information was still helpful. The source was unbiased since it was based on
factual information, so the author did not express his opinion. All of the information was in a
good order and flowed nicely making it easy to understand. This source was useful to the group
because it supported other evidence in the data that the other group members collected. For

example, the causes for homelessness and differences in time periods. This way they were able to
compare statistics. There were no draw backs with this source. It was very useful because when
comparing it to the other source from 2006, its easy to see that not much has helped and that
opinions really havent evolved or changed almost at all.
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. Henry Holt and Company. 1 January 2001.
Web. 25 September 2016.
Summary: This source gave interesting facts like the charge per costumer compared to the
amount that the staff are actually paid. Personality tests keep eligible people from getting jobs.
Low-wage employment for a single woman with children is not sufficient. She also learns that
the application process is costly and that women she worked with at the made place were
constantly looking for approval with their boss. They were practically kissing his feet because
the fate of their jobs lies in his hands.
Evaluation: Nickel and dimed was a reliable and legitimate source because it provided real life
experiences to support evidence about the homeless. The way Barbara Ehrenreich wrote about
the people she met and the troubles she had experienced gave the book a dim yet sarcastic tone.
She seemed to have a clever and somewhat snarky way of describing things. This most likely
being because of her strong personality. While the book was based off of opinion, it was also
based on facts. The amounts of money she earned at her job and paid to stay in hotels were real
and she proved how unfair work wages were by stating how much the costumer was charged and
how much the staff were paid. Though it was opinionated it was still insightful. This source was
useful to the group because Ehrenreich uses her life experience to explain the trouble of getting
by and that allowed the group to support the information with real life experiences. This source

was very influential and what was fascinating was how some of the girls felt either run down by
work or felt that it gave them a purpose and a goal in life and hard work helped them keep their
chins up.