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

by Josephine Ensign Narrated by Holly Adams

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Doody's Review Service

Reviewer: Linda R McDaniel, DNP, MSN (Frontier Nursing University)
Description: This is a fascinating work interweaving the stories of homeless individuals and how historical society norms, legislative polices, and justice systems have impacted and perpetuated the homeless crisis in Seattle, Washington.
Purpose: Though broad and difficult to grasp at first, the book's intent is to provide a foundation of the origins surrounding homelessness in Seattle by introducing the story of the first homeless person and the conditions of that time. The author closes the prologue with an important question: "Are we our brother's and sister's keeper?"
Audience: This book provides a lens to individuals interested in health care, legislation, social work, and advocacy. The author has a vested interest in this topic both professionally and personally. She expresses concern about how our efforts to reduce the issue of homelessness have either harmed or benefited the homeless community.
Features: The book unfolds in a storytelling fashion that covers the basic survival and safety needs of homeless individuals. When these base principles are unmet, homelessness not only impacts the individual, but the communities as well. The book shares the stories of many lost voices who have been impacted by homelessness. The author also gives an account of their own homelessness experience, which provides credibility to the problem we see but haven't experienced.
Assessment: This book provides new insight and awareness of the historical and ongoing issue Seattle faces with its homeless population. The references are very helpful for individuals who would like to learn more about this topic. I would like to see the information expanded to look at this issue historically for all states in the U.S., especially cities impacted by large homeless populations.

From the Publisher

Ensign's Skid Road exposes the entrenched roots of our contemporary crisis. She reveals how physical, visible sites of destitution — and the misery they contain — have long been features of Seattle's landscape: shantytowns, the sprawling Hooverville, tent encampments, tiny villages, shelters, doorways, abandoned homes, vehicles, rundown RVs. She then humanizes this topography by adding flesh and bone and heart to some of the homeless people who have experienced it.
—Crosscut

Ensign's novel unearths the layers of Seattle history underlying our current housing crisis. Centering long-silenced perspectives of those in the margins of society, the provocative read is informed by Ensign's own lived experience of homelessness and over three decades of her work providing primary health care to unhoused populations.
—Seattle Met

Seattle Met

Ensign's novel unearths the layers of Seattle history underlying our current housing crisis. Centering long-silenced perspectives of those in the margins of society, the provocative read is informed by Ensign's own lived experience of homelessness and over three decades of her work providing primary health care to unhoused populations.

Crosscut

Ensign's Skid Road exposes the entrenched roots of our contemporary crisis. She reveals how physical, visible sites of destitution — and the misery they contain — have long been features of Seattle's landscape: shantytowns, the sprawling Hooverville, tent encampments, tiny villages, shelters, doorways, abandoned homes, vehicles, rundown RVs. She then humanizes this topography by adding flesh and bone and heart to some of the homeless people who have experienced it.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176110210
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/17/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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