Gwendolyn Dordick, PhD is a Doctoral Lecturer at the City College of New York, (CUNY) where she offers courses in urban sociology and urban homelessness and social policy in the U.S. Her book, Something Left to Lose: Personal Relations and Survival among New York's Homeless, concerns the efforts made by four groups of homeless people in New York City to construct shelter in places where it was not meant to be and is based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork. Her research also explores the economics of panhandling and the development of policies addressing panhandling. She is currently working with the City of Utica, NY to develop policies to alleviate homelessness. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University, and BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.