Safe haven : the story of a shelter for homeless women /

There are some populations that are extremely difficulty to study, especially to study well. The homeless population is one of them. However, Bridgman (city planning, Univ. of Manitoba) conducts a thorough and enlightening study of how a women's homeless shelter works. While not really its main intent, the book reads like a how-to book for organizing a homeless shelter from scratch. Bridgman does an excellent job of detailing the research methods behind the book (with an especially thorough discussion of the ethics involved in researching a population such as this), yet also uses appropriate excerpts from field notes and people's comments to humanize the work. This very readable and informative book gives not only a face to a frequently faceless population, but also a very detailed example of how one program is trying to help alleviate the problem of homelessness. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels and libraries. L. Wolfer University of Scranton