# Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City - Hardcover

by **Josephine Ensign** (Author)

**A compelling look at the historical roots of poverty and homelessness, the "worthy" and "unworthy" poor, and the role of charity health care and public policy in the United States.**

Home to over 730,000 people, with close to four million people living in the metropolitan area, Seattle has the third-highest homeless population in the United States. In 2018, an estimated 8,600 homeless people lived in the city, a figure that does not include the significant number of "hidden" homeless people doubled up with friends or living in and out of cheap hotels. In _Skid Road_, Josephine Ensign digs through layers of Seattle history--past its leaders and prominent citizens, respectable or not--to reveal the stories of overlooked and long-silenced people who live on the margins of society.

The sometimes fragmentary tales of these people, their lives and deaths, are not included in official histories of a place. How, Ensign asks, has a large, socially progressive city like Seattle responded to the health needs of people marginalized by poverty, mental illness, addiction, racial/ethnic/sexual identities, and homelessness? Drawing on interviews and extensive research, Ensign shares a diversity of voices within contemporary health care and public policy debates.

Informed by her own lived experience of homelessness, as well as over three decades of work as a family nurse practitioner providing primary health care to homeless people, Ensign is uniquely situated to explore the tensions between caregiving and oppression, as well as charity and solidarity, that polarize perspectives on homelessness throughout the country. A timely story in light of the ongoing health care reform debate, the affordable housing crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the stories from _Skid Road_ illuminate issues surrounding poverty and homelessness throughout America.

### Author Biography

**Josephine Ensign** is a professor in the School of Nursing and an adjunct professor in the Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is the author of _Catching Homelessness: A Nurse's Story of Falling through the Safety Net_ and _Soul Stories: Voices from the Margins_.

**Number of Pages:** 312

**Dimensions:** 0.98 x 9.29 x 6.32 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** August 03, 2021

## Details

- **Price:** 27.95 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 27.95 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City - Hardcover

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