New Books Highlight: There Is No Place for Us

Brian Goldstone, There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (2025).

Just past the entryway of the library opposite the circulation desk, a century-old bookcase holds staff picks and new books. Many of these titles dig into interesting topics like Who Owns Outer Space? or The Ethics of Fur. One book highlights a population many of us shy away from or know little about. There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone shines a light on the “invisible homeless,” those without stable housing but who aren’t on the streets or in shelters. Rather, they cycle through the homes of friends and families, seedy extended-stay hotels, infested rooming houses, or sleep in their vehicles. These people are not officially homeless—homelessness in the US is officially defined as sleeping on the street or in a shelter—and this narrow definition works to keep official homeless statistics low and housing assistance out of reach.

Anthropologist Brian Goldstone spent three years in Atlanta closely following five families caught in the struggle for stable housing. Drawing on interviews from social workers, attorneys, activists, public officials, landlords, and others, he reveals how the housing voucher system and landlord-friendly laws shape the lives of the working poor.

When Kara, an EKG technician at an Atlanta hospital, threatened to withhold rent after her landlord failed to fix a broken water heater, the landlord evicted her thanks to Georgia laws that don’t require property owners to guarantee habitability and offers no protections to tenants against retaliatory eviction. With an eviction on her record, no landlord would take Kara’s application, and she regularly slept in her car with her four kids when even the cheapest hotel rooms were out of reach.

Another single mother, Britt, was finally selected for a coveted Section 8 housing voucher after years of waiting. Section 8 housing vouchers subsidize rent, but it’s up to landlords on whether they accept them or not. Her voucher expired before she could find a landlord who would accept it, and she and her two kids continued to couch hop.

Anyone interested in taking a closer look at homelessness in the United States, and the societal attitudes and laws that perpetuate cycles of housing instability will find There Is No Place for Us to be a compelling and informative read.