Over the past four decades, homelessness in the United States has grown into a nationwide travesty .The Making of Homelessness shows that this outcome was not inevitable. It is the result of deliberate policy choices that shifted responsibility away from the federal government and toward individuals, local governments, and private markets. Since the 1980s, federal housing and welfare policy has transitioned away from long-term investments that help people stay housed and toward short-term crisis responses that manage homelessness after it occurs.