Collaborative initiatives between the human service and legal professions are spreading in social service delivery systems and on university campuses in response to the complexity and interre-latedness of social problems. Stoner's new book, embodying such collaboration in legal advocacy for the homeless, reminds us that the judiciary remains the potent source of social change that it had been in the earlier civil rights movement.

In surveying over 1,000 class action lawsuits tried on behalf of homeless people during the past decade, Stoner demonstrates that legal remedies offer direction for advocates in the face of legislative and public resistance, as well as overt hostility. Her book adds substantive insight into the role of the social worker in advocacy by identifying the legal aspects of social work practice. Opposing a climate of pessimism, her discussion of the restoration and preservation of rights to housing, minimum standards of health and welfare, education, family preservation, and voting--along with constitutional protection of personal freedom--offers encouragement to advocates for homeless clients.

"The Civil Rights of Homeless People "identifies the legal issues in all social policy arenas, so that it can serve as a social policy text for teaching policy formulation and implementation. Goal oriented, it includes legal issues and strategies for effective collaboration in support of rights of homeless clients.