Brian Goldstone’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book exposes how five Atlanta families navigate impossible housing conditions despite employment. Soaring rents—up 325% faster than incomes since 1985—combine with narrow eligibility rules to exclude people like Celeste, a cancer survivor denied aid for not fitting 'literal homelessness' definitions. Atlanta’s history of demolishing public housing accelerated displacement, while programs like Section 8 fail in practice: Britt secured a voucher but couldn’t find a landlord who’d accept it, and later lost her LIHTC apartment when investors sold the building. Gentrification and private-equity ownership drive evictions and trap families in extended-stay hotels—costly, unsafe, and unregulated. These hotels charge apartment-level rents for substandard conditions, deepening financial precarity. Goldstone argues that piecemeal fixes are inadequate; lasting solutions require reimagining housing as a guaranteed right—not a commodity—including social housing models and enforceable habitability standards. Cultural and political shifts are essential to restore dignity and stability for working people.