EACH OF US PLAYS
A ROLE IN ENDING HOMELESSNESS
IN AMERICA.
DO YOU KNOW YOURS?
FORGOTTEN HUMANITY, BROKEN SYSTEMS, AND WHERE WE GO FROM HERE
For readers of Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, By America, Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers, and anyone who finds themselves no longer able to turn their back on our unhoused neighbors, When We Walk By offers a compassionate and practical path forward.
Both a thorough analysis of America’s homelessness crisis and a research-based, solutions-focused guide to ending it, When We Walk By is the first book of its kind.
Beautifully written, practical, deeply compassionate, and grounded in combined decades of scholarship, community based work and advocacy, When We Walk By offers meaningful solutions to ending homelessness—and a roadmap back to our collective humanity.
YOU’LL LEARN:
How our shared crisis of humanity—what happens when we “walk by”—keeps us from stepping up for our unhoused community members
How and why an estimated 6 million people experience homelessness in the U.S. each year
About relational poverty and how it impacts our unhoused neighbors
Successful strategies for ending homelessness, like social support systems, basic income projects and reunification services
The stories of our unhoused neighbors in their own voices
How paternalism, NIMBYism, and “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” ideologies get in the way and fail to support unhoused neighbors…and why that hurts all of us
Real actions you can take at the individual, community and policy levels to prevent instances of chronic homelessness
How to overcome feelings of helplessness and start making a difference
About the Authors
Kevin F. Adler is an award-winning social entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, and author. Since 2014, Kevin has served as the founder and CEO of Miracle Messages, a nonprofit organization that helps people experiencing homelessness rebuild their social support systems and financial security, primarily through family reunifications, a phone buddy program, and basic income pilots. Kevin’s work tackling “relational poverty” as an overlooked form of poverty has been featured widely, including in the New York Times, Washington Post, and PBS NewsHour. Motivated by his late mother’s work teaching at underserved adult schools and nursing homes, and his late uncle’s 30 years living on and off the streets with severe mental illness, Kevin believes in a future where everyone is seen as invaluable and interconnected. Learn more and get in touch at kevinfadler.com
Donald Burnes and his wife, Lynn, are the co-founders of the Burnes Institute for Poverty Research at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, where he also served as a member of their board of directors, as a senior adviser to the Institute and to the Center. Previously, Don helped create the Burnes Center on Poverty and Homelessness at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, where he also served as an adjunct faculty member and a scholar-in-residence. A local philanthropist concerned with the issues of homelessness and housing, he served on the State Interagency Advisory Group on Homelessness for Governor John Hickenlooper and served in a similar position for Governor Bill Ritter. He has been a member of Denver’s Road Home Advisory Commission and the Colorado Housing and Homelessness Funders Collaborative. Get in touch with Don at donendhomelessness.org.
Amanda Banh is a first-generation low-income woman of color who recently graduated with a BS in molecular biology from Princeton University. She is the proud daughter of Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants, whose history as the “hidden homeless”—couchsurfers and wage-laborers—in both their native land and in the US inspires her work. Her writing attempts to convey the many nuances surrounding the issue of homelessness, which finds itself in the intersections of identity: race, gender, language, and nationality.
Andrijana Bilbija graduated with a BS in psychology from Princeton University before beginning her role as program manager at Housing and Neighborhood Development Services Inc. (HANDS). At HANDS, she designs and implements creative solutions to help uplift historically marginalized and underserved communities. As an immigrant from Bosnia and Herzegovina, she is driven to ensure all members of our collective American community are seen, valued, and served with dignity.
#WhenWeWalkBy
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TAKE ACTION!
#1: SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES
How does When We Walk By connect to your own experiences around the issue of homelessness? What resonated? What didn’t? Share your story and insights with your friends, neighbors, and family members.
Use #WhenWeWalkBy on social media to join the conversation with others. And if you have personally experienced homelessness, your story is especially vital right now. Courageous sharing invites people to notice their assumptions, and even change their hearts and minds.
#2: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
Relationships can transform lives… including your own! Want to connect with and learn from people in your community who may be experiencing homelessness? Get involved at a local shelter or soup kitchen, or research other nonprofits in your area on VolunteerMatch.
Or volunteer with Miracle Messages, where you can help reunite loved ones as a digital detective, or commit ~30 minutes a week for calls and texts with someone experiencing homelessness as a phone buddy. Best of all, you can volunteer from anywhere in the world!
#3: EDUCATE & FIGHT FOR CHANGE!
Learn more about homelessness, relational poverty, and other interconnected issues via this ever-expanding crowdsourced list of suggested books, films, etc., including TED Talks by Kevin and Don.
If you are part of a book club, civic group, faith-based organization, or corporate group, host a discussion on homelessness. If you would like to read When We Walk By as a group, and/or hear from one of our co-authors or a speaker with lived experiences, please let us know!
And advocate for systems-level changes in your local community! There is plenty of good work to do on housing affordability, health disparities, income inequality, criminal justice, foster care system, immigration, racism and discrimination, veterans affairs, LGBTQ+ youth, and much more. Pick a cause (or several) and get involved!
THIS BOOK IS FOR… YOU!
There is no silver bullet to ending homelessness, partly because homelessness is a microcosm of society’s many broken systems and shortcomings in our basic humanity.
Our hope is that by reading and engaging with our book, you will feel empowered to make a difference on this issue.
We need your voice, your energy, and your action if we are to truly end this human rights crisis in our backyard.
LIVED EXPERIENCE SPEAKERS BUREAU
PEOPLE TO BE LOVED, NOT PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED
Interested in having a neighbor experiencing homelessness share their wisdom with your book club, company, school, or faith-based group?
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
25 Jan
When We Walk By: author Kevin F. Adler in conversation with Shireen McSpadden, Director of HSH in SF
San Francisco, CA | @ Mechanic’s Institute
#WhenWeWalkBy
What you’re saying…
“I’ve been volunteering with various organizations to help people experiencing homelessness for a decade now, and three questions always come up:
—Why do people become homeless?
—What is life like for people experiencing homelessness?
—How do we end the cycle of homelessness?
This book provides clear, concise, and highly accessible answers to these questions and many more. I would recommend this book to anybody who interacts with other human beings ever—seriously.”
“I found myself reading this book into the wee hours of the morning — something I never would have done before with a non-fiction book unless it was required reading for my graduate studies...
I am buying this book in mass quantities as Christmas gifts for my housed neighbors and friends so that together we can establish a new way of not walking by… our houseless neighbors, but [engaging] with them so that they become our friends and we learn how to help them and thereby also help ourselves.”
“Thought-provoking, insightful, well-researched, and inspiring, When We Walk By should be required reading.”
“The reminders in this book are so critically important for me as I try to do better.
What a good reminder this book is, that our unhoused people are in fact PEOPLE, that they have people who care about them, somewhere, that they are just caught up in a terrible time in our country where so many things seem to conspire to keep people down.”
“This is the book we all need right now.
If you are wondering how homelessness has overtaken our neighbors, this book offers the answers you’re looking for.
A beautiful and engaging perspective that will help you understand ‘what’s happening’ and give you practical advice on how you can help. It’s a complicated issue, but that doesn’t mean it’s unsolvable.”
“An incredibly moving and heartbreaking book that dives into the complexities of homelessness.
Everyone should read this book, but especially Christians who want to do something about people experiencing homelessness, law makers, and community leaders who interact with these people regularly.”
“I am guilty of just ‘walking by’ or barely glancing at my unhoused neighbours.
I noticed someone who is living in their car in my parking lot at work — this book has motivated me to approach them to see if they need anything.
This should be mandatory reading for all levels of government!”
“This is the book we all need right now. If you are wondering how homelessness has overtaken our neighbors, this book offers the answers you’re looking for.
A beautiful and engaging perspective that will help you understand ‘what’s happening’ and give you practical advice on how you can help. It’s a complicated issue, but that doesn’t mean it’s unsolvable.
The authors don’t shy away from some of the hard truths but consistently remind us that these are our neighbors, fellow humans, and people deserving of our love and attention. I highly recommend it! ”
“It’s hard to say you enjoyed a book when it’s as gut wrenching as this one. A book about the problem of unhoused people shouldn’t be enjoyed, but my goodness this hits hard and you stay hit.
The ways to help are clearly stated but the main thing we can all do, is just to notice people. We all just want to be ‘seen’.
The biggest lesson is that ‘these people’ are actually just you and me.”
“I would love to send this book to every single member of Congress. Well done...”
“The most comprehensive book on the topic I ever read!
This book should be given to every policy maker, politician, NGOs, and library[s] everywhere, not only in US! [This book] should be discussed in schools and universities!
MANDATORY!!!!”
“This book was brilliant. It really brought to life the people and individuals behind the statistics and stereotypes.
It challenges the perception society has and made me think about my own biases towards people experiencing homelessness.
The authors unflinchingly highlight how the narrative of homelessness being an individual issue is both fundamentally wrong but also serves to prevent us holding those systems responsible to account.”
“People need to be seen. But, wow, what I learned about myself not ‘seeing’ was a lot. Overwhelmingly a lot.
From the start Adler does not refer to those folks as ‘the homeless’ but rather as ‘our unhoused neighbors.’
They are seen.”
“This book made me teary, angry, frustrated and hopeful.
The authors gave me small ideas that I as an individual can do to try make our world just a little more just and kind.
If you are like me you feel for those you see unhoused - but walk by not knowing what to do.
This book should be read by all politicians, all civic leaders, all those people who are afraid and all those who want to help.”
CONTACT US
ADDRESSING HOMELESSNESS TOGETHER
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