Issues & Experts >
Issues & Experts Archive > Understanding homelessness
Understanding homelessness
Document Tools
February 22, 2010
Big picture homelessness
Bruce Alexander, a psychologist and SFU professor emeritus, hopes the added profile given to homelessness by anti-poverty protesters during the Olympics helps the public and policymakers see the problem’s big picture. Alexander, the author of The Globalization of Addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit, says homelessness “extends beyond the Downtown Eastsides of all our cities if we consider its full meaning.”
“These homeless people are not houseless like people in the urban core, but they are without a meaningful home in their family or their community, and spiritually,” explains Alexander. “This kind of homelessness does not cause starvation or hypothermia, but leaves many people so starved for a sense of belonging and purpose that they slide into depression and addiction.”
Alexander’s book, which explores the worldwide growth of this kind of homelessness, has become such a hot item that publisher Oxford University Press will release a paperback version in March 2010. It was originally published as a medical textbook two years ago.
Bruce Alexander, 604.253.2046, alexande@sfu.ca
Bruce Alexander, a psychologist and SFU professor emeritus, hopes the added profile given to homelessness by anti-poverty protesters during the Olympics helps the public and policymakers see the problem’s big picture. Alexander, the author of The Globalization of Addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit, says homelessness “extends beyond the Downtown Eastsides of all our cities if we consider its full meaning.”
“These homeless people are not houseless like people in the urban core, but they are without a meaningful home in their family or their community, and spiritually,” explains Alexander. “This kind of homelessness does not cause starvation or hypothermia, but leaves many people so starved for a sense of belonging and purpose that they slide into depression and addiction.”
Alexander’s book, which explores the worldwide growth of this kind of homelessness, has become such a hot item that publisher Oxford University Press will release a paperback version in March 2010. It was originally published as a medical textbook two years ago.
Bruce Alexander, 604.253.2046, alexande@sfu.ca