Join the City of Grand Junction's Housing Division and Mesa County Libraries in a housing book club, where participants will learn more about housing and houselessness issues, discuss potential solutions, and learn how to get engaged. Limited space is available and sign up is required. All meetings will take place in the upstairs MESA Community Room at Mesa County Library's Central Branch (443 N. 6th St).
Sign up today for the summer book club. Space is limited!
Summer 2023 Book Club: Homelessness is a Housing Problem by Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
In Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities' diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.
Daytime Sessions (5 sessions):
Alternating Wednesdays, 1 - 2:30 p.m., starting May 31, 2023
Evening Sessions (5 sessions):
Alternating Tuesdays, 6 - 7:30 p.m., starting June 13, 2023
Fall 2023 Book Club: TBA!