The History of American Homelessness: A Chat with Jeffrey Olivet of the Center for Social Innovation

The 2012 National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium and Mental Health America Annual Conference is a joint collaboration between the Mental Health Association in Tulsa and Mental Health America. It began here in Tulsa yesterday (the 19th) and concludes tomorrow (the 21st); it's happening downtown, at the Tulsa Convention Center, and this year's conference/symposium is entitled "From Housing to Recovery." Our guest on today's edition of ST is Jeffrey Olivet, who's the CEO of the Center for Social Innovation in Needham, Massachusetts (which is near Boston). Olivet will be giving a Plenary Address this morning at the conference/symposium on "Homelessness in America: From Where We've Come and Where We're Going." As Olivet tells us on today's show, while homeless "hasn't always been a part of the American psyche, it's been a part of the American landscape ever since our nation began." His keynote remarks will focus on the historical roots of homelessness in the United States, including when it began, which factors have mainly contributed to it, and what the current trends in homelessness are. For more about this year's National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium and Mental Health America Annual Conference, please go to this link.