by Brian Goldstone

Summary

Maurice and Natalia. Kara. Britt. Michelle. Celeste. Five working families in Atlanta, each with steady jobs, each sliding, one by one, into homelessness. Brian Goldstone spent years following their stories for There Is No Place for Us, and the pattern he found cuts against the usual assumptions: these are not people who failed to work hard enough. Skyrocketing rents, stagnant wages, predatory landlords, and a safety net full of holes did the rest.

Goldstone sets these stories against Atlanta's booming economy and rapid gentrification, and the contrast is the point: growth does not lift everyone, and the working homeless remain largely invisible in official statistics and public debate. His conclusion is blunt. Homelessness among working people is not an individual failure. It is a policy choice, and it will not change until housing is treated as a right rather than a market commodity.