The rise in the cost of health care, the increase in the reported cases of sife-and child-battering, the rise in hte numbers of illegal aliens, the millions of divoprced women who husbands neglect to pay their child support---all of these factors have combined to make today's homess quite different from the homeless of tweenty or thirty years ago.

     The stories you will hear are sometimes hopeful, often heartbreaking.  As with others in marginal groups, some of the people here have made poor choices, others are victims of circumstance, and others are somewhere in between.  A common fact about their lives, however, seems to be a warning for all of us:  Without a constant vigilance over the choices we make, our lives can become nightmarishly unpredictable and purposeless.