California Homelessness

A “riveting, deeply compassionate” (The New York Times) narrative of homelessness, despair, and hope. Award-winning San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan has been covering homelessness for decades and has spent extensive time on the streets for his reporting. In The Lost and the...

Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother. Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame.

Valley View Senior Housing, built in 2019 in Napa County, California, is a very affordable community of 70 cottages. This groundbreaking homeless project was organized by American Canyon’s city government for older homeless people and homeless veterans of the area. This solution-oriented book shares the inspiring story of a compassionate and humane project. Imagine if every city could create one community like this - we could begin to make headway to solve the homeless problem.

A collection of newspaper articles about Dust Bowl migrants in California’s Central Valley by the author of The Grapes of Wrath.

Ted Just try and have an unusual ministry like mine these days. What’s so terribly wrong with a hug a day, huh? A non-sexual hug? Why can’t I have a non-denominational ministry based on hugs and assistance with getting back on your feet without the paparazzi tailing me, the media blasting me, and my own parishioners afraid to come out of their houses? It’s not like my church does anything other than community outreach to the poor, homeless, and those who want a leg up. The ones whose families and communities couldn’t or wouldn’t help. I’m the friend who gets them back on their ...

For readers of The House on Mango Street and We the Animals, this striking debut brings to life an unforgettable young narrator and the complicated, loving, cruel, and generous figures that make up her universe. Sofia’s mother promises that soon she’ll have her own bedroom to decorate. Soon...

From an award-winning author, Joe Hustle has never had much luck—but things start looking up when he meets an intriguing new woman and scores a rare windfall. Can he outrun disaster long enough to turn things around? Joe Hustle is a survivor. A Gulf War vet and ex-con always one stumble away...

The 10th Winner of the 2019 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, Awarded by Barbara Kingsolver “What a read this is, right from its startling opening scene. But even more than plot, it’s the richly layered details that drive home a lightning bolt of empathy. To read At the Edge...

One Step Forward: A Free Guide for Getting Back on Your Feet in California is a practical resource created to help individuals experiencing homelessness or housing instability navigate California’s support systems with clarity and dignity. This guide explains how to access food assistance, healthcare, shelter resources, identification services, employment support, veteran benefits, and emergency aid using clear, realistic information grounded in California’s public programs and nonprofit networks. Written to be straightforward and respectful, this book avoids jargon and assumptions. It ...

ABOUT THE BOOK Fast, furious, unforgettable and set against the backdrop of a crumbling civilization, NIGHT TRAIN follows arch-outsider Jerzy Mulvaney in an audacious account of what it means to be homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. REVIEW "Without moral rectitude, or digressing into the boring, played-out, over-simplified platitudes of right or wrong, black or white, rich or poor, natural born citizen or immigrant, God or no God, NIGHT TRAIN: A NOVEL by Donald O’Donovan shows us the absurdity of the fact that in the city of Los Angeles alone three quarters of a million people are ...