Community Attitudes Toward the Homeless

The question of community attitudes toward the homeless has received little systematic attention. Media accounts suggest a paradoxical situation, involving general communitywide support for programs to assist the homeless plus site-specific opposition to programs in many localities. In an attempt to illuminate this paradox, a content analysis of over 200 newspaper accounts of homelessness between 1985 and 1988 was undertaken. Opposition accounts outnumber support statements by three to one. Opposition concerns focus on decline in neighborhood quality, personal safety, and loss of business amenity associated with the presence of homeless people. Advocacy statements generally argue in favor of directing more resources toward programs to combat homelessness. Opposition is primarily expressed by local, grass-roots resident and business groups; supportive statements tend to come from more formal advocacy groups, including associations of the homeless themselves.