There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
Brian Goldstone
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) FINALIST FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, 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.
Award History
2 wins · 4 total
| Award | Year | Result | Category / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionMajor | 2026 | Winner | Secondary source |
| Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current InterestMajor | 2025 | Winner | Official source |
| Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionMajor | 2026 | Finalist | Secondary source |
| Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism | 2026 | Finalist | Secondary source |
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies
This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.
01 Central figures
None extracted with sufficient confidence.
02 Central places
- Atlanta90%
Show lower-confidence suggestions
These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.
- America40%
03 Suggested argument
Working people are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but by a thriving one, driven by skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights—especially in booming cities like Atlanta.
Model confidence 82%
04 Reading orientation
35 / 100 academicSerious trade
An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.
Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.