As this century draws to a close and the new one approaches, the United States is still struggling with serious and persistent social problems. These troubling dilemmas, including poverty, homelessness, discrimination, and severe inequity, afflict some subgroups of the population more than others, and it is the plight of these at-risk groups - children, growing numbers of homeless families and individuals, people of color, poor mothers - that this timely volume explores. Contributors to this forward-looking book include some of the most respected and distinguished social scientists in the United States.