Lost in the Stacks: There Is No Place for Us
Meet five families pushed into homelessness.
An extended stay hotel is no one’s idea of the American Dream. Maurice and Natalia never imagined they would be living with their three kids at Extended-Stay America for months on end. After the condo they rented was sold, a low credit score and an eviction on their record made affordable housing impossible to find. Even with two incomes the Atlanta couple were stuck in the “expensive prison,” as Maurice called it, while multiple apartment applications (each costing a hefty fee) were turned down.
Like the other Atlanta families profiled in Brian Goldstone’s There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, Maurice and Natalia weren’t afraid of hard work. Sometimes the families had to get creative with childcare or tricky commutes, but they showed up to work at restaurants, hospitals. or car rental places. They worked hard for low wages and few benefits. And if that wasn’t enough to pay the bills, they hustled side gigs of cooking or doing hair or door delivery. Even so, these families, squeezed by high rents and low inventory of affordable housing, were often one paycheck away from being homeless.
By the end of There Is No Place for Us you will absolutely be rooting for Maurice, Natalia and the other families to find safe, stable housing. You will also be aghast at the predatory nature of certain companies whose entire reason for being is to rip off the poor. Finally, you might wonder how many families in Topeka are begging relatives for a spot on the floor or who are trapped in extended stay hotels.
