Episode Details

In good times and in bad, homelessness is the problem that always seems to be with us. The great recession ended more than seven years ago. The jobless rate has fallen to 4.4 percent. And yet New York City still has to house about 60,000 people in its homeless shelters every night. And many others are sleeping on the streets, in church vestibules and other public places. Why is this problem so persistent? Why have so many initiatives proved futile? Bob Herbert asks this of his guests Thomas J. Main, author of a new book, “Homelessness in New York City: Policymaking from Koch to de Blasio,” and Dr. Ralph da Costa Nunez, president of the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness, an independent research and policy organization.

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