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Though the overall number of homeless people in the United States has been in a slow decline in recent years, homelessness has risen sharply in larger cities. More than 500,000 people were homeless in the United States at the end of last year, according to a report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Many who find themselves living on the streets find a level of community and security in homeless encampmentswhether the tent cities are sanctioned or unofficial. Gathered here...

What is it like to be a 4-year-old human? Trying to remember this experience with any accuracy is difficult. Memories are hazy flashes of sensory experience and emotion that fail to coalesce into something coherent: the red piped icing on a birthday cake, the sticky static of plastic wrap on moms dry cleaning, overwhelming waves of sadness from a Disney-movie soundtrack. Its no wonder that at an individual level, trying to talk and relate to a small child can feel like grappling with a...

In "Survival Mode," "Fault Lines" examines the psychological toll of gun violence on children growing up in Chicagos most dangerous and neglected communities. The film airs on Sunday, Feb. 14, at 9 p.m. Eastern time/6 p.m. Pacific on Al Jazeera America. | Click here to find Al Jazeera in your area. In 2015, an average of one person every three hours was shot in Chicago, more than than any other city in the U.S. Over the course of the calendar year, there were nearly 3,000 shooting victims in...

In the behavioral health field, it is clear that the most high-stakes developmental period is adolescence, when mental illness and substance use problems often emerge. During adolescence, experimentation or risky use of substances can eventually progress into addiction, with 90 percent of individuals with substance use disorders reporting that they initiated use of substances before age 18. Adolescence is also a common developmental window for the onset of mental health problems, with half...

Dr. Vincent Felitti spent three days in Juneau, Alaska this week as a guest of the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) and its president, Dr. Rosita Worl . He was invited to speak about the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experience Study and how it might benefit Alaska, specifically the Alaska Native community. Beginning with a radio appearance and a community reception with about 100 people in attendance, Dr. Felitti was well received. While in Juneau, he met with Alaska Native...

Cleaning up after a snowstorm is no small feat. While many U.S. cities see the threat of impending snow as routine, others are notoriously under-equipped to deal with snow emergencies. This lack of preparedness can strike particularly hard at wheelchair users, who already face difficulties navigating snow on their own. Although there is arguably a certain logic to which streets get attention from snowplows first, the priority in many cities seems to lie less with individual citizens and...

The pictures, for the most part, are prosaic, like outtakes from a yearbook photo shoot. One shows five members of an amateur rock band. Another depicts uniformed football players gathered for a team photo. In yet another, a man is shown carving an ice sculpture. Occasionally, though, the subject matter is much darker. [For more of this story, written by Pete Brook, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/02/real-san-quentin/462075/]

Readers discuss and debate the issue. To join in, email hello@theatlantic.com. 9:35 AM Could Keeping Depressed People From Guns Do More Harm Than Good? A reader makes several great points along those lines: You asked about policy measures that could be implemented to help lower rates of gun suicides, in particular whether people with mental illness or a history of suicide should be banned from purchasing firearms. I think that’s an extremely problematic idea for a number of reasons.

Washington State Teacher of the Year Nate Gibbs-Bowling made waves in the education world recently with his essay, “The Conversation I’m Tired of Not Having.” Gibbs-Bowling bluntly called out the lack of political will and urgency around educational equity, writing up front, “I want to tell you a secret: America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people.” He’s right — but goes on to draw an incomplete conclusion. As...

The old adage about pornography from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart—that it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it—could just as easily apply to NIMBYism. If the term were merely a catch-all for development opposition, then it would fit San Franciscans reflexively blocking infill proposals as well as Jane Jacobs stopping a highway through the Village. That one is clearly NIMBYism and the other closer to heroism suggests a need for greater verbal precision.

WHEN crack hit America in the mid-1980s, for African-Americans, to borrow from Ta-Nehisi Coates, civilization fell. Crack embodied instant and fatal addiction; we saw endless images of thin, ravaged bodies, always black, as though from a famined land. And always those desperate, cracked lips. Our hearts broke learning the words “crack baby.” But mostly, crack meant shocking violence, terrifying gangs and hollowed-out inner cities. For those living in crack-plagued areas, the...

When Abigail Kramer, a journalist and advocate on children’s issues, entered the world of Family Court, she was haunted by its infamous moniker: “The saddest place in New York.” Kramer found much that confirmed that assessment: “The courthouse is dismal in the particular way of municipal buildings that serve the very poor,” Kramer wrote in a recent report for the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs. “The walls and floors are scuffed.