During the opening keynote of the 21st Decatur Book Festival on Oct. 2, Pulitzer Prize‑winning journalist Brian Goldstone brought attention to a pressing local issue: the hidden homelessness crisis affecting working families in the Atlanta metro area. The conversation, held at the First Baptist Church of Decatur and moderated by author‑activist Brea Baker, centered on Goldstone’s recent book, There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, which follows five Atlanta families who remain employed yet lack stable housing.
Local families, national relevance
Goldstone, a former Decatur resident, explained that much of his reporting was conducted just a few miles from the festival venue, often in neighborhood coffee shops. He traced the investigation to a personal observation: his wife, a nurse practitioner at Mercy Care, noticed many of her patients were employed but still living in vehicles, extended‑stay hotels, or couch‑surfing with friends.
“I had the assumption that a job would be an exit from homelessness,” Goldstone said. “My reporting showed that assumption is wrong.”
Economic forces driving the crisis
Through the stories of five families, Goldstone illustrates how rising rents, frequent evictions, low wages, and rapid redevelopment can push even diligent workers out of their homes. One family, led by warehouse employee Celeste, lost her home to a fire and then faced an eviction judgment that complicated her search for new housing, ultimately forcing her family into an extended‑stay hotel.
Goldstone emphasized that the problem is not a simple poverty issue but a “crisis of a very particular kind of prosperity.” He argues that Atlanta’s booming economy and aggressive development have created a housing market that many working residents simply cannot afford.
Journalistic responsibility and human dignity
Baker pressed Goldstone on the ethical responsibilities of journalists covering vulnerable populations, especially when race, class, and lived experience differ. Goldstone responded that building trust required years of consistent reporting, the use of dash cameras, and digital recorders to ensure accuracy and respect for his subjects.
“It was very important to me that the people in this book not be human arguments, like mere vehicles for the point that I might want to make, but that they be allowed to live and breathe as human beings,” he said.
Calls for action
Goldstone estimates that if people staying in vehicles, extended‑stay hotels, or temporarily with others are counted, the national homeless population would rise to roughly four million—far above official estimates. He urges readers to feel the crisis before attempting to solve it, and he calls for increased public investment in permanently affordable housing, framing housing as a fundamental human right.
“The story is not done, and it is on all of us to ensure that not just the families in the book, but the millions of people like them, have a different ending to their story,” Goldstone concluded.
Community response
Decatur Book Festival Executive Director Bailee Yarbrough highlighted the event’s mission to use literature as a bridge for community dialogue. “As the Decatur Book Festival enters its third decade, we remain committed to the idea that books build strong communities and reflect the complexity of the world around us,” Yarbrough said.
The festival’s focus on this difficult topic underscores a growing local appetite for honest conversations about housing stability, economic equity, and the role of faith‑based institutions in supporting vulnerable families.
Original reporting: SaportaReport — read the source article.
