In The Atlantic: Rhode Island's Homelessness Trouble

Rhode Island's struggles with unemployment and homelessness continue to land in the national press. The latest account, on The Atlantic's web site, personalizes the issue with a look at a newly homeless young father:

Douglas Edward Coates is polite, soft spoken, and articulate. He looks like a typical 29-year-old professional in his black wool coat and wire-rimmed glasses, his sandy hair and goatee neatly cropped. If I'd met him under any other circumstances, I could not have guessed that he'd been living in a homeless shelter for three months.