Britt discovers an email from the Atlanta Housing Authority after two years on the Section 8 waitlist.

Kara falls asleep at the wheel after a 16-hour hospital shift and crashes her car while pregnant.

Celeste moves her children into Efficiency Lodge after arson, an eviction, and a fatal shooting at a sublet leave them with nowhere else to go.

Britt's landlord refuses to renew her lease after her recently incarcerated cousin stays at the apartment.

Britt loses her housing voucher after failing to find a landlord who accepts Section 8 within the deadline.

Kara is evicted after withholding rent over a broken water heater her landlord refused to repair.

Kara and her four children sleep in her car in a Walmart parking lot after all local shelters turn them away.

Maurice and Natalia's landlord informs them she is selling the condo and gives them 60 days to vacate.

Michelle discovers Jacob has been fired and is using drugs, and the family is soon evicted from their apartment.

Celeste is diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer after months of emergency room doctors dismissing her symptoms.

The COVID-19 pandemic shuts down schools and businesses, leaving all five families with drastically reduced incomes.

Armed private security guards carry out a mass illegal eviction of residents at Efficiency Lodge without court orders.

Britt and her neighbors receive notice that Gladstone Apartments will be demolished to make way for a luxury development.

Michelle enters a domestic violence shelter and treatment program after Nick severely beats her.

The Georgia Court of Appeals upholds the residents' lawsuit victory, establishing that long-term hotel residents have tenant rights.

This pool follows the most pivotal events across all five families as they are pushed from stable housing into crisis. Britt's hard-won Section 8 voucher expires unused in a rental market that refuses to accept it, while Kara loses her apartment to eviction after her landlord ignores a broken water heater. Maurice and Natalia are forced from their affordable condo into a luxury apartment they cannot sustain, and Michelle is abandoned by her partner and left unhoused with her children. The COVID-19 pandemic deepens every family's precarity, and a mass illegal eviction at Efficiency Lodge reveals how little legal protection the most vulnerable residents have. The pool closes with the Efficiency Lodge lawsuit victory, a rare moment of institutional accountability in a system built to favor property owners over tenants.

The headline crises that push five working families into homelessness.

Kara gives birth to her son Joshua alone in the hospital and is offered a full-time EKG technician position.

Maurice and Natalia live comfortably in their Sandy Springs condo, though both work full-time and still cannot afford a car.

Celeste launches Passion Foods from her Efficiency Lodge room, selling elaborate meals to neighbors with no other food options nearby.

Britt moves her children into a two-bedroom apartment at QLS Gardens after finally receiving her Section 8 voucher.

Kara drives her four children to Florida to stay with Grace's father, but his girlfriend stabs Kara with a fork and they immediately flee.

Celeste is told at Gateway Center she does not qualify for housing assistance because she is not considered literally homeless.

Maurice and Natalia move into The Whitney at $500 more per month and discover the apartment is infested with cockroaches.

Natalia is diagnosed with severe postpartum depression, causing the family's income to plummet and a missed rent payment to trigger eviction.

Michelle and Skye survive by sleeping secretly in a hotel storage room and panhandling outside stores.

Pink holds a food drive at Efficiency Lodge and learns from residents that Michelle was evicted after a violent drunken fight.

Kara contacts the Housing Justice League hotline and is placed in a hotel by Nicholas House and enrolled in the H2H rehousing program.

Efficiency Lodge residents gather at Flat Shoals Park with HJL organizers to build a three-phase plan against the illegal evictions.

Celeste moves into a dilapidated rooming house in Dixie Hills where her health deteriorates to 85 pounds.

Maurice and Natalia are approved for a new Sandy Springs apartment and attend their first NACA homeownership intake session.

Britt drives past the demolished Gladstone site and sees a sign advertising Empire Zephyr luxury homes starting in the low $400s.

This pool captures the significant but less visible moments that accelerate each family's slide into housing insecurity. From Kara's hopeful delivery room moment to Celeste's entrepreneurial hustle at Efficiency Lodge, the events show how much the families build before losing it. Key institutional failures emerge — Celeste is turned away from Atlanta's main service hub for not meeting the narrow definition of 'literally homeless,' and the Taylor family discovers that steady employment provides no protection against cockroach-infested luxury apartments and automated eviction filings. Community organizer Pink begins connecting isolated crises into collective awareness, and the Efficiency Lodge residents attempt organized resistance. The pool ends with Britt confronting the physical site of her displacement, where luxury homes rise on the land where her community once lived.

The smaller turning points that compound each family's housing crisis.

Michelle senses Jacob is hiding something during Christmas Eve dinner and impulsively asks her family to hold hands and pray.

Celeste realizes she is trapped in the hotel model after watching the manager exploit residents and paint over mold before an inspection.

Jacob announces he is leaving the family and moves in with another woman, abandoning Michelle and her children at the A2B hotel.

Britt secures an apartment at Gladstone through a personal neighborhood connection after the formal voucher system has already failed her.

Natalia and Maurice narrowly avoid eviction with nonprofit help but are evicted weeks later for paying rent just one day late.

Natalia fills out a SNAP application and checks the box identifying her family as unhoused for the first time.

Pink locates Michelle and Skye gaunt and hungry on the street after tracking Michelle down through a Facebook message.

Michelle moves into the Salvation Army shelter and gets her childcare application approved and a referral for housing assistance.

Kara realizes the Marietta rental listing is a scam after finding the same property advertised on Zillow at more than double the price.

Kara forfeits her yearlong housing subsidy to move immediately into a smaller unit after her approved apartment is rented to someone else.

DJ moves in with Pink after Michelle, in a drunken rage, accuses him of being like his abusive father.

Celeste sets her GPS for Tampa and drives away from Atlanta, abandoning her dream of opening a restaurant named Passion Foods.

Britt asks her sister Aaliyah to apply for an apartment in her own name after a caseworker rules Britt ineligible for housing assistance.

Kara's electricity is repeatedly shut off due to systemic building-wide billing problems, forcing her family to sleep in their car again.

Kara leaves her four children home alone at night, removes the stove knobs, hides the knives, and walks to her car for an overnight security shift.

This pool focuses on the private moments of revelation and decision that reshape each family's trajectory. Michelle's unease on Christmas Eve, Jacob's abandonment of his family, and Natalia's quiet act of identifying herself as unhoused on a government form capture how sudden and invisible these breaking points can be. Kara's near-miss with a rental scam reveals how desperation is weaponized against families with no alternatives, and her decision to forfeit a yearlong housing subsidy exposes the impossible choices forced by bureaucratic delay. The psychological toll deepens toward the end — Michelle's son DJ is driven from his home by his mother's breakdown, Kara leaves young children home alone to keep a job, and Celeste drives away from Atlanta and the restaurant dream that had sustained her through every crisis. Together, these moments reveal how housing insecurity erodes not just shelter but identity, family bonds, and the capacity for hope.

The decisions, discoveries, and emotional breaks that define each family's story.