Annotated Bibliography: Field Site Research on Seattle Homelessness

This annotated bibliography, prepared by a student, examines the multifaceted issue of homelessness in Seattle, Washington. The assignment fulfills the requirements of a cultural anthropology course, focusing on the student's field site, Americas Best Value Inn in Lynnwood, WA. The bibliography includes nine credible sources, encompassing peer-reviewed scholarly articles, news reports from outlets like Fox News and Seattle Weekly, and various web sources. Each entry provides a concise summary of the source's content, along with examples, relevant quotes, and the student's personal reflections and connections to their field site's work, which involves collaborating with local law enforcement and social services to address the issue. The sources cover a range of topics, including the health implications of homelessness, the financial costs of criminalizing homelessness, the role of affordable housing, and the challenges faced by the homeless population in Seattle, including addiction and mental health issues. The student's reflections highlight the importance of addressing these issues, providing temporary housing, and advocating for long-term solutions.

Running head: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Klein, J., & Reddy, S. (2015). Care of the homeless patient. Medical Clinics of North
America, 99(5), 1017-1038.
 Summary:
This article talks about the harmful consequences, which the people face when they
encounter the tragic fate of homelessness. The role of medical service providers
attains important role in this article.
 Example/Illustration:
Planning regarding the provision of chronic medical services per person setting
 Quote: “Persons without adequate housing experience continuous threats to their
health, whether from diseases, complications, or environmental dangers”
 Connection: Appropriate medical services to the patients contradicts the aspect of
homelessness
 What I Think: I think that care services need to be thoroughly checked by the staffs
for ensuring that they are effective in reducing the suffering and ailments of the
victims. I also believe it is important as they do not have access to proper medical
facilities because of poverty.
2. Hwang, S. W., & Burns, T. (2014). Health interventions for people who are homeless.
The Lancet, 384(9953), 1541-1547.
 Summary: Homeless has been considered as one of the aspects, which aggravates the
complexities of the individuals. Primary healthcare programs gains an important

2ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
position in the article in terms of mentioning about the provision of tailor made
solutions to the individuals for improving the health conditions.
 Example/illustration: The field service organisation works to ensure the homeless
people are mentally treated due to the trauma and depression they go through because
of the poor conditions in which they live.
 Quote: “the key ingredients for such a relationship include respect for the individual,
upholding the person’s dignity, building mutual trust, and showing warmth and caring
through “acts of kindness”
 Connection: Health interventions are effective for ensuring mass involvement of the
victims of homelessness into programs. Case management is one of the productive
options for detecting the intensity of the tragedies in the life of the victims, so that
they can be provided with relevant solutions.
 What I think: I believe that mental stability is important to avoid depression and help
homeless people in Seattle to tackle the situation.
3. Howard, J., Tran, D., & Rankin, S. (2015). At What Cost: The Minimum Cost of
Criminalizing Homelessness in Seattle and Spokane. Available at SSRN 2602530.
 Summary- In this article, the means of creating affordable saving options have been
highlighted. The important components considered are incarcineration, adjustification
and medical costs. Diversification of the funds devoted to the care of the victims is
also highlighted in the article.
 Example/Illustration- Our organisation puts emphasis on this issue of
criminalization of homeless people. Research conducted suggests that the basic things
that homeless people need to do like sleeping in public or urinating is considered to be
a criminal offence

3ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Quotation- “Sir, you cannot sit there. Please move along or I will have to give you a
ticket.”
 Connection- Feedbacks are the means of improving the standards of living for the
victims of homelessness.
 What I think- I believe that these poor people do not have any choice and punishing
for their condition which too some extent the government is responsible for is harsh
and unjustified.
4. Glynn, C., & Fox, E. B. (2019). Dynamics of homelessness in urban America. The
Annals of Applied Statistics, 13(1), 573-605.
 Summary- The dynamics of homelessness in the threshold of urban America gets
reflected in the article. The increasing accommodation costs aggravates the
complexities of the government in terms of ensuring the wellbeing of the population.
 Example/illustration- Our field also does research on this cause and provide
alternative methods like building houses for the homeless people and help them get
secured jobs.
 Quote- “we highlight this fact to encourage public policy researchers, policymakers,
and continuum leaders to carefully quantify their beliefs and uncertainty about count
accuracy or the inferences drawn from studies relying on these counts”.
 Connection- Homelessness and governmental schemes cannot be related together.
Dynamics of this malice helps the government to plan for strategies to reduce the
intensity, so that the standards of living for the people gets improved.
 What I think- It is important to look into the social issue and how we ourselves have
contributed to the issue in the country and I feel it is important for the government to
take notice and ensure they do something about it.

4ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
5. Conklin, E. (2016). The Solution to Seattle’s Homeless Problem Is Painfully Obvious |
Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 27 January 2020, from
https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/the-solution-to-seattles-homeless-problem-is-
painfully-obvious/
 Summary- This news article focuses on the homeless people in Seattle and talk about
the misconception one has about the homeless people.
 Example- Recruitment of New Director for Downtown Emergency Services Centre
and misalignment by increasing the number of shelter beds.
 Quotation- “Study after study has shown that leaving the chronically homeless on the
street is a lot more expensive than building affordable housing. It is an investment
against greater downstream cost”.
 Connection- The views of this article align with the work we are trying to propose in
order to mitigate this issue
 What I think- I believe building affordable housing is the solution to eradicate this
social issue which threatens human rights.
6. Fox News. (2019). Seattle residents blame inefficient elected officials for homeless
problem, say they've 'lost faith' in system. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-residents-blame-inefficient-elected-officials-for-
homeless-problem-say-theyve-lost-faith-in-system
 Summary- This news article states the lost faith in case of the victims for the
inefficiency exposed by the officials. Competency towards using the systems is also
one of the main issues of the article.
 Quotation- “It's no secret that -- despite all the efforts -- our city has shown itself
incapable of dealing with the severe problem brought about by chronic homelessness,
mental illness and drug abuse”

5ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Example/Illustration- Field surveys
 Connection- The field surveys are ineffective towards solving the issues by coming
up with campaigns and initiatives to solve the issue however the growth is slow. It has
been seen that there are growing problems which the homeless in Seattle are facing.
 What I think- I believe that the focus should not only be on eradicating homelessness
but to troubleshoot all the causes and the issues that they have been facing.
7. Crosscut.com. (2019). 'Heartbreaking': Seattle's homeless are getting sicker and
shelters are struggling to keep up. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from
https://crosscut.com/2019/06/heartbreaking-seattles-homeless-are-getting-sicker-and-
shelters-are-struggling-keep
 Summary- The primary focus of this news article is on the struggles of the homeless
people and the growing disease of the country
 Quotation- “we are seeing people's end-of-life issues in facilities that are just not
designed to meet those needs."
 Example/Illustration- Majority of the facilities do not provide high quality services
to the homeless people and thus they are not catered efficiently and properly.
 Connection- The field site organization serve works towards delivering quality
services to the homeless people so that they are free from diseases and other possible
threats.
 What I think- I think that now the first step is to ensure well-being of the homeless
people because of the increase in their health hazards which is similar to what we
have been taught.
8. AddictionCenter. (2019) Homelessness and Addiction - Addiction Center. Retrieved
28 January 2020, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/homelessness/

6ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Summary- This site upholds the connection between homelessness and addiction.
Statistical reports related to the instances of mental disorders and addiction represents
the alarming situation and its impact on the population.
 Example/Illustration- The mothers are provided with shelters and are involved in the
counselling programs organized by the rehabilitation centres.
 Quotation- “homeless women suffer unique gender-based trauma, contributing to the
higher amounts of drug use with homeless women than men”
 Connection- This is a huge issue and non-profit organisations are highly working on
ending this issue by providing women with shelter who have kids and counseling
programs and rehabilitation centers.
 What I think-This piece of news was new information for me as I was not aware of
the rate of drug abuse among women which was more than men and it is important to
cater to these issues which affect their wellbeing.
9. Keating, S. B. (2017). Tiny Home Communities: Alternative Solutions to Addressing
Homelessness.
 Summary- In this article, Affordable housing is the main issue which has led to
homelessness in Seattle and the field site organisation.
 Quotation- “the current housing system in the U.S. needs to be supplemented or
amended to provide that right to the greatest amount of people. By increasing federal,
state, or local government support of tiny home communities, governments can make
substantive steps toward ending homelessness, especially unsheltered and chronic
homelessness”.
 Example/illustration- Funding tiny home communities

7ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Connection- Funds assist in the reduction of the chronic homelessness, enhancing the
standards of living of the whole population
 What I think- This aligns with what I know and also where I work as this is the main
solution if implemented effectively can help in eradicating homeless people and
ensure overall well-being of the homeless people.

8ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
References
AddictionCenter. (2019) Homelessness and Addiction - Addiction Center. Retrieved 28
January 2020, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/homelessness/
Conklin, E. (2016). The Solution to Seattle’s Homeless Problem Is Painfully Obvious |
Seattle Weekly. Retrieved 27 January 2020, from
https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/the-solution-to-seattles-homeless-problem-is-
painfully-obvious/
Crosscut.com. (2019). 'Heartbreaking': Seattle's homeless are getting sicker and shelters are
struggling to keep up. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from
https://crosscut.com/2019/06/heartbreaking-seattles-homeless-are-getting-sicker-and-
shelters-are-struggling-keep
Fox News. (2019). Seattle residents blame inefficient elected officials for homeless problem,
say they've 'lost faith' in system. Retrieved 28 January 2020, from
https://www.foxnews.com/us/seattle-residents-blame-inefficient-elected-officials-for-
homeless-problem-say-theyve-lost-faith-in-system
Glynn, C., & Fox, E. B. (2019). Dynamics of homelessness in urban America. The Annals of
Applied Statistics, 13(1), 573-605.
Howard, J., Tran, D., & Rankin, S. (2015). At What Cost: The Minimum Cost of
Criminalizing Homelessness in Seattle and Spokane. Available at SSRN 2602530.
Hwang, S. W., & Burns, T. (2014). Health interventions for people who are homeless. The
Lancet, 384(9953), 1541-1547.
Keating, S. B. (2017). Tiny Home Communities: Alternative Solutions to Addressing
Homelessness.

9ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Klein, J., & Reddy, S. (2015). Care of the homeless patient. Medical Clinics of North
America, 99(5), 1017-1038.