Brian Goldstone’s There Is No Place for Us (2025) is a work of narrative nonfiction that documents the intersecting lives of five working-class Black families struggling to find secure housing in modern Atlanta, Georgia. Through immersive, multiyear reporting, the book follows single mothers and couples as they navigate a landscape of soaring rents, extended-stay motels, and systemic barriers that push them into being unhoused despite their full-time employment. The book explores several themes, including The Persistence of Housing Insecurity Despite Employment, How Corporations Profit From Precarity, and How Planned Gentrification Drives Displacement.

Goldstone, a journalist with a PhD in anthropology, applies ethnographic methods to his reporting, embedding himself in the lives of his subjects to produce a deeply researched account of the national housing crisis as it unfolds in one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. The book builds on Goldstone’s prior long-form articles on housing insecurity, placing the families’ stories within the context of Atlanta’s urban renewal policies, which have accelerated gentrification and displaced low-income communities. A central argument of the book is that narrow government definitions of “homelessness,” which exclude people living in motels or with relatives, hide the full scale of the crisis and render today’s unhoused invisible.

This guide refers to the 2025 Crown hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child death, physical abuse, graphic violence, pregnancy termination, illness, death, substance use, mental illness, sexual violence, and emotional abuse.

Summary

Britt Wilkinson, a single mother of two, worked as a line cook and lived with her children on a pullout sofa in her great-grandmother’s apartment. The family previously lived in a public housing project before its demolition. For two years, Britt had been on the waiting list for a Section 8 housing voucher, a necessity since leaving the children’s father, Javon, due to domestic violence. One night, she received an email from the Atlanta Housing Authority, signaling a long-awaited change in her housing situation.

Kara Thompson, a single mother of three, was pregnant with her fourth child and worked double shifts cleaning a hospital psychiatric ward. Exhausted after a 16-hour shift, she crashed her car but had only minor injuries. Flashbacks revealed a difficult past, including a forced abortion as a teenager and children with absent fathers. Just before giving birth to her fourth child, Kara secured a higher-paying job as an EKG technician at the hospital, which gave her a sense of hope.

Maurice and Natalia Taylor lived a stable life with their two children in a rented condo. Both worked full-time, Maurice at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Natalia at State Farm, but they could not afford a car. They had moved from Washington, DC, five years earlier to escape gentrification, believing that Atlanta offered better opportunities. They had a positive relationship with their landlord and were expecting their third child.

Michelle Simmons lived in an apartment complex with her fiancé, Jacob, their young daughter, and her two teenage children from a previous marriage. While Jacob worked as a handyman for the complex, Michelle was a stay-at-home mother studying online to become a social worker. Years earlier, she left an abusive marriage and reconnected with Jacob, a childhood friend who had become a father figure to her children. Despite a happy family façade on Christmas Eve, Michelle harbored growing unease about Jacob’s secretive behavior.

Celeste Walker and her three children resided at Efficiency Lodge, a dilapidated extended-stay hotel. A series of crises had led them there: An arsonist ex-boyfriend destroyed their rental house, prompting an eviction from the uninhabitable property and damaging her rental history. A subsequent sublet ended after a tragic accidental shooting in the apartment. From her hotel room, Celeste ran a small food business, “Passion Foods,” to survive, even as she began to experience persistent, undiagnosed health problems.

After Britt received her housing voucher, she moved into a two-bedroom apartment, achieving stability for the first time in years. However, after her recently incarcerated cousin stayed with them, her landlord refused to renew her lease. Britt’s search for a new apartment revealed that most landlords would not accept Section 8 vouchers. Atlanta had a history of demolishing public housing in favor of a voucher system, but this system was failing in the gentrifying market. Unable to find a new unit within the housing authority’s deadline, Britt lost her voucher.

In Kara’s rental house, the water heater broke, and her landlord refused to repair it. When Kara withheld rent, he evicted her, and the court sided with him. Desperate, she took her four children to Florida to live with her daughter’s father, Darius, but a violent confrontation with his girlfriend forced them to immediately return to Atlanta. They stayed in a motel until their money ran out, and (after finding that all local family shelters were full or inaccessible), Kara and her children began living in her car.

Maurice and Natalia’s landlord informed them that she was selling their condo, giving them 60 days to move. They faced a difficult rental market with high application fees, were repeatedly rejected due to low credit scores, and were forced to use a cosigning company, Liberty Rent, which cost them a month’s rent and limited them to expensive luxury complexes. They moved into an apartment at The Whitney, paying $500 more per month, which depleted their savings. It was infested with cockroaches.

Michelle discovered that Jacob had been fired and had been using drugs. They were two months behind on rent and were evicted. After a short stay at a Days Inn, they moved to the A2B Budget Hotel, where Michelle got a job. Jacob then abandoned the family. After ending a dispute with her boss by hanging up the phone, Michelle believed she had been fired, leaving her without an income.

Britt found an affordable apartment in a gentrifying neighborhood through a family friend.

Natalia and Jacob’s finances spiraled due to the expensive new apartment, coupled with Natalia’s severe postpartum depression. They fell behind on rent and faced eviction, which they narrowly avoided with help from a nonprofit. However, their struggles continued, and in January, they were evicted after paying their rent one day late. The family moved into an Extended Stay America hotel.

Michelle, unemployed and unable to afford her room at A2B, resorted to panhandling with her daughter Skye and sleeping in a hotel storage room. A stranger connected her with a church that paid for a room at Efficiency Lodge. Her drinking worsened, and she was unable to find work because her application for a state childcare subsidy stalled.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived, shutting down schools and businesses. Having already lost her hospital job, Kara was forced to stop working as a home health aide due to daycare closures and began driving for DoorDash with her children in the car. Celeste was laid off. Natalia was put on unemployment because she could not work remotely from the hotel. She applied for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), officially identifying her family as unhoused for the first time.

Community organizer LaQuana “LA Pink” Alexander held a food and clothing drive at Efficiency Lodge, where she learned that Michelle and her children were evicted after a fight. Pink found Michelle and Skye living on the street and offered support. Kara was also forced out of her hotel after her car broke down. She contacted the Housing Justice League (HJL) hotline, which connected her to the nonprofit Nicholas House. The organization placed her family in a downtown Marriott and enrolled her in their Homeless to Homes (H2H) rapid rehousing program, which promised a year-long rental subsidy.

Michelle moved into a Salvation Army shelter, where a caseworker helped get her Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) application approved and referred her for housing assistance. Britt, after being laid off, earned money by operating a home-based hair salon. Her mother, Cass, who had also been laid off, moved in with her.

Kara’s search for an apartment under the H2H program was difficult due to its strict requirements. She was finally approved for a unit, but a city-mandated environmental review (a requirement for subsidized housing) delayed her move-in for more than a month. Forced to stay in a costly motel, she drained her savings, and DoorDash deactivated her account for lateness. When the review was finally approved, the apartment had been rented to someone else. After a confrontation, the leasing office offered her a smaller unit but stipulated that she forgo the yearlong subsidy to move in immediately, which she accepted.

Celeste’s health deteriorated, and she was diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer. She sought help at Gateway Center but was told she did not qualify for housing assistance because she was not “literally homeless.” At Efficiency Lodge, armed private security guards conducted an illegal mass eviction, prompting Pink and HJL to organize protests and support for the displaced families. A judge ruled against the residents, stating that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 eviction moratorium did not apply to hotel guests.

Britt and Cass received notice that the complex they were living in would be demolished for a luxury development. A loophole in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) had allowed the owner an early exit from affordability requirements, enabling him to sell the property. Britt moved out, placing her children with their father while she stayed with a friend.

HJL and Pink helped the displaced residents of Efficiency Lodge file a lawsuit. However, the effort lost momentum as families prioritized daily survival.

Michelle moved into a new apartment but lost her job, and her drinking escalated. She began an abusive relationship with a man named Nick, and her children went to live with her aunt Regina. After losing her new apartment, she lived on the street.

Britt’s living arrangement with her friend ended, and she and her children became unhoused again, moving between friends’ homes. A caseworker told her she didn’t qualify for assistance because she was not in a shelter. Her sister agreed to apply for an apartment in her own name for Britt to live in.

Celeste was placed in a dangerous rooming house, where her health declined further. After six months, she left Atlanta and moved with her sons to Tampa, Florida.

Kara struggled to afford her new apartment without the subsidy, and inexplicably high electricity bills led to shutoffs. Her children were expelled from daycare, forcing her to quit her job, take an overnight security position, and leave them home alone.

After nine months in a hotel, Maurice and Natalia were approved for an apartment. They began the long process of applying to Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), a homeownership program for low-income families.

After Nick severely beat her, Michelle entered a domestic violence shelter and treatment program, reconnecting with her children by phone. Her son DJ thrived while staying with Pink, who became his mentor.

Britt revisited the demolished apartment site, where the new luxury development was being built, and reflected on her displacement. The Efficiency Lodge residents won their lawsuit, setting a legal precedent in Georgia that grants long-term hotel residents the rights of tenants.