This month some of us at DHPC are participating in an online book study of There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America, by Brian Goldstone. We join in a serious discussion each Monday night about our attachment to the characters Goldstone presents and our hopes and dreams about being able to make a difference ourselves, as a church. Goldstone’s focus is on five families in Atlanta, all of whom are Black as are roughly 80% of the unhoused population of Atlanta. The fact that these families live in our city makes the streets and landmarks familiar to us and makes the stories all the more poignant. Goldstone doesn’t simply give us statistics about poverty and housing. He spends years with these families, and we follow his journey as the characters search for apartments, pay fees, deal with landlords, and watch rents rise. These aren’t the stereotypical homeless. They are hospital workers, cleaners, mechanics, or warehouse workers. We watch these people who take care of our sick, clean our buildings, and cook our food at McDonald’s struggle to find a place to live. Consider reading this book if you haven’t already.

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