Overview

"Just beyond Las Vegas' glitz live thousands of homeless people, most of them men. To the millions of visitors who come to the city each year, these people are largely invisible, segregated from tourist areas because it's """"good business."""" Available now in paperback, """"The Word on the Street"""" is the first in-depth study of homelessness in Las Vegas. It is also an important investigation of how a popular tourist destination addresses this significant social problem.Through conversations with homeless men and years of fieldwork and analysis, Kurt Borchard reveals the lives and desperation of men without shelter. He offers a graphic, disturbing, and profoundly moving picture of life on Las Vegas' mean streets. He also analyzes Las Vegas' news reports about and public policy regarding homelessness, and the men's own perceptions of those policies. Insightful and evocative, the book shows a side of Las Vegas normally invisible to most visitors and residents. It is of vital interest to social workers, sociologists, anthropologists, politicians, policymakers, and people concerned about changing the misery on America's streets."

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9780874177237

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Reviews

The strength of his work is embodied in the fact that at every turn homeless men are allowed to speak for themselves. Borchard's retelling of the problems of addiction, mental illness, loss of family networks, and substance abuse is heartrending....The complexity with which homelessness is understood is highlighted in this book and is one of the major thesis points of the work. Simple solutions will not solve the problems of homelessness in America. - Talmadge Wright The qualities that make Borchard's book so good - writing and detailed descriptions; rich and moving ethnographies and a keen eye for the humanity of each subject; and the overall depiction of the parts of Vegas that few tourists will see - will be attractive to humanists scholars and activists. Well organized and insightful, the book should also be very useful for undergraduate courses on homelessness, poverty, and urban studies. - Corey Dolgon, Humanity and Society

"""The strength of his work is embodied in the fact that at every turn homeless men are allowed to speak for themselves. Borchard's retelling of the problems of addiction, mental illness, loss of family networks, and substance abuse is heartrending....The complexity with which homelessness is understood is highlighted in this book and is one of the major thesis points of the work. Simple solutions will not solve the problems of homelessness in America."" - Talmadge Wright ""The qualities that make Borchard's book so good - writing and detailed descriptions; rich and moving ethnographies and a keen eye for the humanity of each subject; and the overall depiction of the parts of Vegas that few tourists will see - will be attractive to humanists scholars and activists. Well organized and insightful, the book should also be very useful for undergraduate courses on homelessness, poverty, and urban studies."" - Corey Dolgon, Humanity and Society"""

Author Information

Kurt Borchard is associate professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He has worked as the director of a program for homeless men in Fairbanks, Alaska.

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