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When We Walk By
- Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America
- Narrated by: Kevin F. Adler
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
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When We Walk By
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Summary
How to end homelessness in America: a must-read guide to understanding housing instability, supporting our unhoused neighbors, and reclaiming our humanity.
A deeply humanizing analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness—for the socially engaged reader of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste and Matthew Desmond's Evicted.
Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or did you avert your gaze?
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.
Authors Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes, with Amanda Banh and Andrijana Bilbija, recast chronic homelessness in the U.S. as a byproduct of twin crises: our social services systems are failing, and so is our humanity. Readers will learn:
- Why our brains have been trained to overlook our unhoused neighbors
- The social, economic, and political forces that shape myths like “all homeless people are addicts” and “they’d have a house if they got a job”
- What conservative economics gets wrong about housing insecurity
- What relational poverty is, and how to shift away from “us versus them” thinking
- That for many Americans, housing insecurity is just one missed paycheck away
- Who “the homeless” really are—and why that might surprise you
- What you can do to help, starting today
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.
Critic reviews
“A compelling story of rediscovering our own humanity—and a roadmap on how we can make large-scale changes that improve everyone's way of life. Read this book to understand how being connected can save us all.” (Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and former 2020 presidential candidate)
“[C]aptivating… People experiencing homelessness are humans like you and me, deserving of the same respect and dignity.… [A] must read!” (Ellen Bassuk, MD, Founder of C4 Innovations and the National Center on Family Homelessness and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School)
“When We Walk By reminds us of our shared humanity, our shared needs, and how we should promote a political economy of sharing, especially with our neighbors who have little or nothing. Read this, heed the call. No more just walking by!” (Dennis Culhane, Dana and Andrew Stone Professor of Social Policy, School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania)