In surveying numerous class action lawsuits tried on behalf of the homeless, the author discusses such client-centered issues as rights to housing, minimum standards of health and welfare, education, family preservation, and voting. There are sections on the role of the courts in formulating social policy and the use of the legal system by homeless advocates. Under the heading Entitlements of Homeless People, the author includes: (1) shelter and emergency assistance; (2) income maintenance litigation; (3) public child welfare; (4) mental health services; (5) eviction litigation; (6) voting rights; and (7) education. The chapter regarding The Criminalization of Homeless People includes: (1) Free Speech and Begging (antibegging ordinances and legal challenges thereto, public opinion regarding antibegging ordinances); (2) Loitering and Sleeping in Public (public encampment issues, restrictions on the use of public places, legal challenges to those restrictions, legal uncertainty about public access); (3) Homeless Arrest Campaigns (including legal challenges thereto); and (4) The Limitations of Judicial Advocacy (judicial policymaking, collaboration between law and social work, different perspectives on law and social justice). Notes, references, cases cited, index