There Is No Place for Us - by Brian Goldstone (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Through the ... stories of five Atlanta families, this ... work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend--the dramatic rise of the 'working homeless' in cities across America"--

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - Through the "revelatory and gut-wrenching" (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend--the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America

"An exceptional feat of reporting, full of an immediacy that calls to mind Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family and Matthew Desmond's Evicted."--The New York Times Book Review

The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America's booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.

In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country's "Black Mecca" after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children--and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation's working homeless.

Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation's hidden homeless--omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem.

By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness--and shows that it won't be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.

Review Quotes

"Goldstone stitches together a textured and extraordinarily detailed narrative of [five families'] multiyear struggle to keep a roof over their heads. The effect is reminiscent of Random Family. . . . By compassionately telling these families' stories and excavating the systemic forces behind their housing insecurity, There Is No Place for Us shifts the paradigm on homelessness."--Washington Post

"[An] extraordinary work of journalism . . . There Is No Place for Us tells the stories of [five] families with precision and depth, making clear that housing is an essential public good."-- Jezebel

"Devastating . . . [Goldstone] writes with unusual depth and humanity about people whose stories political and media elites largely prefer to ignore."--Baffler

"Read this extraordinary book. If you're lucky, you'll be changed."--Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

"In this brilliant book, Brian Goldstone lays bare the hidden disaster of housing precarity among America's low-wage workers. . . . May it move you to act so that we, as a society, might finally shelter all who need it."--Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of Race for Profit

"If you read one book this year--or this decade--it should be There Is No Place for Us."--Adelle Waldman, author of Help Wanted

"A spellbinding and unflinching portrait of five American families working full-time yet still unable to secure stable housing. The writing is as immersive as documentary. And be warned: this book will devastate you and then set your spirit ablaze."--Antonia Hylton, author of Madness

"Deeply reported and written with an empathy that brims from every page . . . [Goldstone] has pulled off a rare and stunning narrative feat."--Jonathan Blitzer, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

"A crucial, masterful book that will change the national conversation about homelessness."--Rachel Aviv, author of Strangers to Ourselves

"A blistering investigation into the true scope of America's ballooning homelessness crisis."--Roxanna Asgarian, author of We Were Once a Family

"A tremendous achievement in reporting, in narration, in emotional and intellectual understanding. Brian Goldstone's book will stand with J. Anthony Lukas's Common Ground and other works that tell the story of our country by telling the stories of our fellow citizens."--James Fallows, author of Our Towns

"A model of ethical journalism . . . Make a place for this book alongside Jane Jacobs' classic Death and Life of Great American Cities."--Kirkus Reviews

"A gripping, high-stakes account of America's housing emergency."--Publishers Weekly

"There Is No Place for Us belongs on the shelf next to Matthew Desmond's Pulitzer Prize-winning Evicted. . . . A must-read for anyone with interest in social sciences, equity, and one of the defining American crises of our time."--BookPage, starred review

"A revelatory and gut-wrenching exploration of an often-ignored homeless population that is key to understanding poverty in America."--Associated Press

About the Author

Brian Goldstone is a journalist whose longform reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The New Republic, The California Sunday Magazine, and Jacobin, among other publications. He has a PhD in anthropology from Duke University and was a Mellon Research Fellow at Columbia University. In 2021, he was a National Fellow at New America. He lives in Atlanta with his family.