Working to end homelessness requires continuous learning. Many of us at Plymouth spend time learning about the nuances of the housing crisis through books, podcasts, and series. Below, we’ve put together a list of stories that have stuck with us. These works illustrate how housing instability can impact people and communities from all walks of life and may offer new insights into what it means to be unhoused.
From the Ashes: My Story of Being Indigenous, Homeless, and Finding My Own Way
Book (memoir) | Jesse Thistle
Abandoned by his parents as a toddler, Jesse Thistle was cut off from all he knew when he was placed in the foster care system. Jesse eventually succumbed to a self-destructive cycle, resulting in more than a decade living on and off the streets. Through perseverance and newfound love, he managed to find his way back into the loving embrace of his Indigenous culture and family. In this heart-wrenching and triumphant memoir, Jesse Thistle honestly and fearlessly divulges his painful past, the abuse he endured, and the tragic truth about his parents.
Lost Patients
Podcast | KUOW, The Seattle Times, and NPR
“Lost Patients” is a deeply-reported, six-part docuseries examining the difficulties of treating serious mental illness through the lens of Seattle’s past, present and future. With real-life testimonials from patients, families, and professionals on the front lines, “Lost Patients” provides a real, solutions-oriented look at how we got stuck here, and what we might do to break free.
Go behind the scenes of “Lost Patients” at Key to Hope, Plymouth’s signature luncheon. Taking place on Wednesday, Sept. 25, this year’s fundraiser will feature a keynote presentation from “Lost Patients” co-producer Esmy Jimenez. Join us in bringing an end to homelessness in our region and ensuring everyone has access to the care and stable housing they need to thrive.
Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns
Book (nonfiction) | Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern
Using accessible statistical analysis, the authors test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account.
Evicted: Property and Profit in the American City
Book (nonfiction) | Matthew Desmond
Evicted follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads, transforming our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
Lead Me Home
Short documentary film | Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk for Netflix
In the shadow of boundless real estate development proliferating in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, Kos and Shenk filmed the daily lives of more than two dozen subjects over three years to provide a slice-of-life portrayal of what it’s like to experience homelessness in America today. Conceived as a two-part visual symphony shot in distinct production periods, the film opens a window into a parallel world hiding in plain sight and challenges the audience to feel the scale, scope, and diversity of unsheltered America.
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive
Book (memoir) with Netflix series | Stephanie Land
At 28, Land’s dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.
Outsiders
Podcast | KNKX
Homelessness on the West Coast is rising to crisis levels at a time of historic economic growth and prosperity. Why? KNKX Public Radio and The Seattle Times’ Project Homeless spent one year in a city that’s grappling with homelessness. What’s it like to live outside for months on end? What’s it like when tents come to your neighborhood? What new solutions can city leaders find? This is “Outsiders.”
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People
Book (nonfiction) | Tracy Kidder
Dr. Jim O’Connell invented a community of care for a city’s unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets. “Rough Sleepers” follows O’Connell as he navigates the city streets at night, offering medical care, socks, soup, empathy, humor, and friendship to some of the city’s most endangered citizens. He emphasizes a style of medicine in which patients come first, joined with their providers in what he calls “a system of friends.”
Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in Seattle
Book (nonfiction) | Josephine Ensign
UW professor Josephine Ensign traces the history of homelessness in Seattle—and the many intersections with how we address mental health—from the earliest days of Washington Territory to today. Ensign uncovers the stories of overlooked and long-silenced people who have lived on the margins of society throughout Seattle’s history. How, Ensign asks, has a large, socially progressive city like Seattle responded to the health and social needs of people marginalized by poverty, mental illness, addiction, racial/ethnic/sexual identities, and homelessness? Ensign explores the tensions between caregiving and oppression, as well as charity and solidarity, that polarize perspectives on homelessness throughout the country.
When We Walk By
Book (nonfiction) | Kevin Adler and Donald Burnes, with Amanda Bahn and Andrijana Bilbija
When We Walk By takes an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose—in ourselves and as a society—when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets. And it brilliantly shows what we stand to gain when we embrace our humanity and move toward evidence-based, people-first, community-driven solutions, offering social analysis, economic and political histories, and the real stories of unhoused people. A necessary, deeply humanizing read that goes beyond theory and policy analysis to offer engaged solutions with compassion and heart, When We Walk By is a must-read for anyone who cares about homelessness, housing solutions, and their own humanity.