There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America

by Brian Goldstone

Experts often talk as if there are discrete types of homeless Americans. It is widely assumed, for instance, that a family dealing with “episodic” homelessness has stumbled into their predicament for economic reasons (job loss, an eviction), whereas “unsheltered” or “chronically homeless” individuals are believed to be in that position because of mental health issues, a disability, or substance use. Yet Pink had witnessed, again and again, how such things could become a by-product of homelessness rather than causing it. Michelle’s experience demonstrated how rapidly one variant of homelessness could morph into another—in other words, how porous all those ostensibly firm distinctions could be. The “hidden homeless” could very quickly find themselves on the street; today’s worker, given enough adversity, might lose their job and spiral into addiction or mental illness. Pink had to remind herself that only recently the woman walking toward her had been in school and renting her own apartment. Homelessness, seen in this light, was never a fixed state or a static condition. It was a point along a spectrum: in a motel today, on a couch tomorrow, possibly in a tent a year from now.