There Is No Place for Us, Brian Goldstone
There Is No Place for Us, Brian Goldstone
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There Is No Place for Us
Working and Homeless in America

Author: Brian Goldstone

Narrator: Dion Graham, Brian Goldstone

Unabridged: 13 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/25/2025


Synopsis

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES AND THE ATLANTIC’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • 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 (Editors’ Choice)

WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE • FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL AND THE BERNSTEIN AWARD • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Elle, New America, BookPage, Shelf Awareness

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lilah on December 28, 2024

I won this book…this is an amazing eye opening and heartfelt account of the economic gap we face with the cost of living ! I think he did an amazing job of breaking down each families personal story and explaining.We are all one crisis away from life falling apart. Amazing job......more

Goodreads review by Michael on May 16, 2025

This is an immensely powerful and essential book, infuriating and heartbreaking, written with an insight and empathy that deserves every major literary award. Most importantly, this book reveals failing systems, systemic inequalities, and a general lack of public awareness. If there’s any justice in......more

Goodreads review by Katy O. on April 21, 2025

Incredibly powerful and an essential addition to the body of work on this topic, especially in regard to the impacts of the predatory extended stay motel industry. This book requires a dedicated and patient reader, as it is easy to get confused when switching between the five families and their exte......more

Goodreads review by Morgan on May 14, 2025

One of the best books I've ever read......more

Goodreads review by Inez on April 15, 2025

Goldstone offers a staggeringly harrowing overview of “in between” homelessness in the U.S. by following several families in their attempts to stay housed. This case study approach not only makes the book very easily accessible (as opposed to academic text filled with citations and statistics) but a......more


Quotes

“[Goldstone] writes about a ruthless housing system that profits from people’s desperation and penalizes them for being poor. I was moved by this book. I also felt enraged.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times Book Review

“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. . . . There Is No Place for Us shifts the paradigm on homelessness.”The Washington Post

“An incredible feat . . . Stunning . . . A book like this ought to be a rallying cry, the 21st-century equivalent of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.”—The Nation

“Beautifully crafted . . . Revelatory and often heartbreaking . . . [Goldstone] has the clear eye and deft touch of a master storyteller. There Is No Place for Us reveals an America few of us know.”The New York Review of Books

“Poignant . . . Through in-depth and often heart-rending accounts, Mr. Goldstone shows why [families] lack stable housing and face difficulties in acquiring it.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Brian Goldstone’s stunning nonfiction debut, There Is No Place for Us, traces the downfall of the American worker to the fallout of the American Dream. . . . Magnificently stylistic. . . . [Reads like] a gripping novel.”Rolling Stone

“[An] extraordinary work of journalism . . . There Is No Place for Us tells the stories of [five] families with precision and depth.”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.”—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

“Spellbinding and unflinching . . . 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.”—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.”BookPage, starred review

“A revelatory and gut-wrenching exploration of an often-ignored homeless population.”—Associated Press


Awards

  • Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
  • Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism
  • Los Angeles Times Book Prize