Powerful ... Offers an immersive narrative of how five Atlanta families found themselves in the direst of straits yet statistically invisible ... An exceptional feat of reporting, full of an immediacy ... A moving book. It is also appropriately enraging. Incremental remedies, Goldstone argues, have only worsened a problem that stems from the assumption that housing is ultimately a commodity.
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, revealing how America’s disinvestment in public housing and relentless pursuit of free-market growth has come at the terrible expense of poor working families ... As Goldstone recounts each family’s trials, he seamlessly weaves in explanations of the systemic reasons behind them.
Devastating ... Seeks to redefine homelessness for our era of florid profiteering and a wilting welfare state as a condition more widespread than most Americans understand ... The vivid portraits Goldstone draws in There Is No Place for Us elicit compassion, empathy, outrage on behalf of the working homeless.
It’s a revelatory and gut-wrenching exploration of an often-ignored homeless population that is key to understanding poverty in America ... Its structure and pace keeps readers engaged as it underscores how many working families are teetering on the edge, and the obstacles that are thrown in their path in finding stable housing.
Through in-depth and often heart-rending accounts, Mr. Goldstone shows why they lack stable housing and face difficulties in acquiring it. But his ideas about how to help them turn out to be superficial and unpersuasive ... To help those left behind, he urges policymakers to take steps such as creating a legal right to affordable housing, controlling rents, building more 'social housing' ... At one time or another, all of these have been tried and often found wanting. Mr. Goldstone doesn’t seriously examine what happened in those failed attempts or suggest improvement ... There Is No Place for Us is effective in building sympathy for the plight of families who are struggling to afford housing, especially in growing cities such as Atlanta, but falls short in suggesting what might help them or what they could realistically do to improve their own prospects.
In illustrating how homelessness is skyrocketing in the richest country in the world, Goldstone has accomplished an incredible feat. His book is a must-read for anyone with interest in social sciences, equity and one of the defining American crises of our time.
