After the New Deal of the 1930s and the Great Society programs of the 1960s, many Americans believed that homelessness was no longer a serious problem in the United States; but in the 1980s the number of homeless Americans grew dramatically, and their plight came to be recognized as one of the leading social problems of the decade. Starting in the early 1980s homeless people often called "street people" became an increasingly frequent sight in New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Saint Louis; and most other major cities, as well as many smaller cities. Men and women of all ages, individuals and families from varied backgrounds and circumstances shabbily dressed and inadequately nourished began roaming city streets, sleeping on benches in summer and on heating grates or in crowded public shelters in winter. The sight of people who for one reason or another had "slipped between.....
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