Adolescents in Public Housing incorporates data from multiple public-housing sites in large U.S. cities to shine much-needed light on African American youth living in non–HOPE VI public-housing neighborhoods. With findings grounded in research, the book gives practitioners and policy makers a solid grasp of the attitudes toward deviance, alcohol and drug abuse, and depressive symptoms characterizing these communities, and links them explicitly to gaps in policy and practice. A long-overdue study of a system affecting not just a minority of children but the American public at large, Adolescents in Public Housing initiates new, productive paths for research on this vulnerable population and contributes to preventive interventions that may improve the lives of affected youth.