“What's worse than being homeless in America is that they're not considered homeless in America,” says journalist and ethnographic artist Brian Goldstone. The homeless crisis in America is far beyond what we see on the streets, and Goldstone wants us to pay attention to those hidden from public places.
In his new book, There is no place for us: working in the US and homelessnessGoldstone examines the lives of families caught up in long-term motels, those who sleep in cars, or shuffle between unstable arrangements. His report challenges the longstanding American narrative that connects homelessness with unemployment and unwillingness to work.
I talked with Goldstone about the distinction between “falling” and “pushing in” and homelessness, the stigma that comes with the label of homelessness, and his perspectives that may require meaningful solutions. Our conversations were lightly edited and condensed to make them clear.
It should be noted that many people with unstable housing situations resist identifying themselves as “homeless.” How does this resistance to adopting a label affect both individual experiences and our collective understanding of the housing crisis?
The term “homeless” is absolutely stigmatized, and there is also the way in which HUD's general definition of homelessness (there are only those sleeping on the streets and the people who count homeless shelters, are filtered into public stories and public imagination. The people I write in my book belong to that masses – they often don't perceive themselves as homeless when they double with friends or sleep in motels. For example, they are often surprised to learn that their children's schools and the Ministry of Education has learned. do If they are in such a situation, consider them homeless. These formal indicators and methods of conceptualizing problems will absolutely affect those experiencing it on a psychological level.
When one of my book “Celeste” burns out and realizes that she can't secure another apartment due to an eviction being raised against her, she and her son end up at this extended stay hotel. At one point, my son's primary school social worker gave her this homeless resource list. But Celeste was like, “I don't have that homeless label for me and my kids.” Part of that was this idea that she didn't want to say anything to being. She didn't want this homeless category to be her identity. But practically, she ignored these resources until she was later diagnosed with cancer, and she went out to this hotel trap and realized that it was virtually impossible.
So there was tension to refuse [homeless] Category, but then she realizes that she needs a category. We have a measure of poverty in America. Many people who fall under the poverty threshold don't necessarily want to consider themselves poor, but their definitions and thresholds are absolutely essential for determining and decomposed resources.
Most of your book's reports came before the homeless actually exploded as a political issue in the US after the pandemic, At the camp and, Grant Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court lawsuit. Tell us about your decision not to bring that recent history to the book.
I didn't know that the pandemic was coming, but looking back, I think it's really important to show that the emergency we know better during the pandemic was already going well when we saw how absolutely the thread bears the social safety net is. The pandemic has intensified rather than producing this home's catastrophe.
How this relates to camps, the criminalization of the homeless, the war with unmoved people given the green light The grant will pass Decided, I have not tried to attract any clear boundaries between the kinds of homelessness that are subject to such kinds of crackdowns and the more invisible or hidden populations I write about.
Generally, these tents on the street are like the tips of icebergs, which is the most extreme homeless edge in America. Many of the people I write about in my books are like things under the surface. But it's important to say that this is all one huge iceberg. The more extreme and sharp this emergency, the more noticeable it will become, as it simply pushes up to the surface. But that vision continues until you deal with what is beneath its surface or out of sight. As a matter of fact, there is no sufficient place to hide it.
Other countries have commercial housing systems, but have not experienced homelessness at our level. Based on the report, are you looking at ways to maintain aspects of the current system while dealing meaningfully with the homeless, or do solutions need more fundamental changes?
I hesitate to go directly into the discussions regarding market rate housing and zoning reforms and tenant rights and rent management. In my own opinion, we need all of that and in itself is not sufficient. The only thing that may really be sufficient is the large investment in government at all levels of social housing.
When we narrow the scope, magnitude and nature of a crisis, we can be sure ourselves that half of these types of measures are appropriate. I don't think there are a few small houses here, and some permanent support housing units above them, close to what is needed to truly address the magnitude and severity of this issue. But that doesn't mean we don't need those things either. Yes, we need to change the basics to how we approach housing in America.
Some of your characters have developed a rather cynical view of the homeless service industry. We have a new Republican administration that is questioning the idea of more subsidies. Certainly, when you read your book you can see a bit of how it is true. What are your own views now?
I think the current system works very well within the constraints imposed on this world of homeless services, and in many cases they do their best with what they have. Homeless service providers are told to prioritize those seeking to distribute rare resources, according to certain scholars and experts on the issue, as there is an immediate risk of dying on the streets. I don't think the problem is the system itself. It shaped the system.
You focused on the extended stay hotel and motel to books. This is the last resort option of these where people often pay a lot for conditions of fairly low quality, not receiving traditional tenant protections and not officially counted as homeless even if they can't afford to go elsewhere. They exist in such a gray area of our residential conversation. What do you think about these places today?
For thousands of families and individuals living in these extended stay hotels, it is effectively a for-profit homeless shelter, so they are places where victims of the American housing crisis are commissioned and then people feel almost impossible to leave. The way I think about them is often similar. What is worse than being homeless in America is not considered homeless in America. What's worse than being a low-income tenant in America is that you don't even have the “privilege” to be considered a tenant.
I think that people living in these hotels are soon the most vulnerable renters in America and the most vulnerable homeless people in America. And I know that it sounds paradoxical that these two can coexist, but I think that makes these places so important to us.
You write that the family has not fallen homeless, they are being pushed. Who or what is pushing, and how does it change what we think about addressing the issue?
There is this language called “falling homeless.” There's something beyond their control, beyond who control, and that's just happened to them. In my book I argue that the enormous wealth and the activation of urban spaces accumulated in cities across the United States are not only present with this deprivation and instability, but also actively produce it. And when I talk about people being pushed into homelessness and this kind of anxiety, I'm really trying to assert that causality.
You emphasize “working homelessness” through your book – people who are at work but still lacking stable housing. How does this reality challenge the long-standing American story that connects homelessness with unemployment and job dislikes?
Many people in this country, especially those who have not experienced this instability itself, had to believe in stories about poverty and homelessness. But in some cases, certain jobs can make it even more likely that the homeless actually are waiting for you, and that's really hard for us to agree. What really shocked me was that people work, work, work, work, work more, work more, work more, it's not enough. Ensuring the most basic material needs is not enough. Housing is undoubtedly the most important thing. That reality is not new, and it has not only happened in the past few years, but it is new in scale.
People on the political spectrum have little to believe in certain things about homelessness, as acknowledging reality raises many questions that we in America cherish like the need for hard work. And I say that working hard isn't enough in this country.
