Homelessness in popular culture

Despite its prevalence, homelessness is frequently described as an invisible problem. Writers and other artists play a role in bringing the issue to the publics attention, with many works created where homelessness is the central theme. In other works homelessness is a secondary subject, added to advance the story or contribute to dramatic effect.

Examples

Below is a partial list introducing examples of such work, mostly where homelessness is the central subject.

Popular songs

• 1800s. "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" - traditional folk song
• 1908. "If It's Good Enough for Washington It's Good Enough For Me", music by Percy Wenrich, words by Ren Shields - sleeping on bench in public square with statue of George Washington.
• 1962. "Man on the Street", by Bob Dylan, officially released on 1991's Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series.
• 1963. "Only a Hobo", by Bob Dylan, officially released on 1991's Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series.
• 1968. "I Am a Lonesome Hobo", by Bob Dylan, from his 8th studio recording John Wesley Harding. A humble warning from a homeless man to those who are better off.
• 1969. "Highway Chile", by Jimi Hendrix Experience. The song is about a homeless man that Jimi met when he was on tour.
• 1972. "Aqualung", by Jethro Tull
• 1977. "We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover" in the musical Annie
• 1978. "Bag Lady", by Todd Rundgren, from the album Hermit of Mink Hollow
• 1983. "Brothers Under the Bridges" by Bruce Springsteen, later released on Tracks compilation album
• 1989. "Another Day in Paradise" by Phil Collins, which was included on his album ...But Seriously became the last number 1 of the 1980s.
• 1991. Something in the Way, music by Nirvana, written by Kurt Cobain when he was young, homeless and sleeping under a bridge at the age of fifteen
• 1991. "Even Flow", music by Pearl Jam, lyrics written by Eddie Vedder telling a story about a homeless man.
• 1991. "Homeless (Like the Christ Child Was)" on the album "The Forgotten Carols" by Michael McLean.
• 1993 "Shelter" by Duran Duran.
• 1993. "Somebody's Baby" by Pat Benatar.
• 1996. "Low Man's Lyric" by Metallica.
• 1998. "What it's like" by Everlast.
• 2004. "Nobody's Home" by Avril Lavigne.
• 2007. "There Is No Good Reason" by Natalie Merchant on the compilation album, Give US Your Poor. The song was written by a 15 year old homeless girl, Nichole, telling about her ordeals and struggles.

Music albums

• 2007. Give US Your Poor. It has 17 recordings to help end homelessness with artists such as Jon Bon Jovi, Natalie Merchant, Pete Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, Sonya Kitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and actors Danny Glover and Tim Robbins.

Popular films

• 1914. The Little Tramp with Charlie Chaplin
• 1966. Cathy Come Home - An influential film by Ken Loach which raised the profile of homelessness in the UK and led indirectly to the formation of several charities and changes in legislation.
• 1977. Simple Gifts at the Internet Movie Database opening original segment by Maurice Sendak in collection of six animated Christmas shorts, PBS TV special issued on VHS in 1993.
• 1985. Tampopo featured a scene where a community of culinary bums live quite well and one of them becomes instrumental to the narrative. The scene as has been reference in other works.
• 1986. Down and Out in Beverly Hills
• 1987. Ironweed - based on the 1983 novel, "Ironweed", by William J. Kennedy which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 1991. Curly Sue - John Hughes film starring James Belushi
• 1991. Life Stinks - Mel Brooks
• 1994. With Honors - Joe Pesci
• 1997. La Vendedora de Rosas at the Internet Movie Database - Adaptation of The Little Match Girl
• 2003. Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story - Harvard student
• 2006. The Pursuit of Happyness - the story of Chris Gardner
• 2008. Hancock - a homeless, down and out superhero spoof
• 2009. The Soloist - based on a true story of Nathaniel Ayers, a musician who becomes schizophrenic and homeless

Theater

• 1902. The Lower Depths, a play by Maxim Gorky, inspired by the residents of a Nizhny Novgorod homeless shelter.
• 1985. Stinkfoot, a Comic Opera - a musical which includes the homeless Mrs. Bag Bag.

Books

A homeless man in Paris.

• 1905. The Cop and the Anthem (short story) by O. Henry.
• 1933. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.
• 1993. Stone Cold by Robert swindls.
• 1998. The homeless in Paris: a representative sample survey of users of services for the homeless, in Dragana Avramov, ed, Coping with homelessness : issues to be tackled and best practices in Europe, Ashgate Publishing, by Maryse Marpsat and Jean-Marie Firdion.
• 2005. Without a Net: Middle Class and Homeless (With Kids) in America by Michelle Kennedy.
• 2005. The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls. ISBN 0743247531
• 2005. Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski.
• 2010. Street Logic by Steve Sundberg, Bookstand Publishing, 2010. ISBN 9781589096806

Documentary films

• 1978. The Agony of Jimmy Quinlan is a National Film Board documentary about homeless alcoholics in Montreal (video online in full).
• 1984. Streetwise -- follows homeless Seattle youth.
• 1993. It Was a Wonderful Life at the Internet Movie Database -- chronicles the lives of six articulate, educated, "hidden homeless" women as they struggle from day to day. Narrated by Jodie Foster.
• 1997. The Street: A Film with the Homeless about the Canadian homeless in Montreal. New York Times Review,
• 2000. Dark Days -- A film following the lives of homeless adults living in the Amtrak tunnels in New York.
• 2001. Children Underground -- Following the lives of homeless children in Bucharest, Romania.
• 2003. À Margem da Imagem at the Internet Movie Database -- about the homeless in São Paulo, Brazil. Its English title is "On the Fringes of São Paulo: Homeless".
• 2004. Homeless in America at the Internet Movie Database
• 2005. The Children of Leningradsky -- About homeless children in Moscow.
• 2005. Reversal of Fortune -- A homeless person is given $100,000 and is free to do whatever he wishes with the money.
• 2006. Homeless -- About Homeless people and homelessness in England.
• 2007. Easy Street -- about the homeless in St. Petersburg, Florida.
• 2008. The Oasis -- an observational documentary about homeless youths in Sydney, Australia, filmed over two years.
• 2008. Carts of Darkness is a documentary by Murray Siple about extreme shopping cart racing by homeless men. (Video online in full.)
• 2008. The Ballad of Robert and Harvey: We Are Not Faraway at the Internet Movie Database - "Centered on the troubled friendship between Robert and Harvey, the film exposes the unique hardships and common humanity of people who live among us but are virtually unknown."

TV and radio documentaries

• 1977. Underneath the Arches, a ground-breaking documentary produced by Owen Spencer-Thomas on BBC Radio London in which London's homeless people were enabled to tell their own stories.
• 1988. Home Sweet Homeless at the Internet Movie Database -- a CBS Schoolbreak Special about a mother and her son who find themselves having to live in their car.

TV entertainment and comedy shows

• 2007. "Night of the Living Homeless" was an episode that appeared on Comedy Central's South Park. It was first broadcast on April 18, 2007.

Visual arts

• 2005. Photographic expose by Michel Mersereau entitled "Between The Cracks"

See also

• Homelessness