Books that Center Homelessness for Adult Readers Part 1

Published on 28 January 2026 at 13:57

We're rounding out our series centering themes of homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity in literature with books for adult readers. Information access is one small way to push back against cruelty and misinformation, both of which have been used in recent U.S. politics against unhoused communities. Below, you'll find resources for getting active in your community, accessing support for yourself or others, and books (both fiction and nonfiction) that highlight voices and experiences of unhoused folks or people struggling with poverty or food insecurity.

Image Description: A hand poking out of a gray bell sleeve reaches out to pull a book off a tightly packed bookshelf. 

Credit: Yeşim / Pexels

10 Books for Adult Readers That Center Homelessness, Poverty, and Food Insecurity

  1. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (nonfiction)
  2. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister (fiction)
  3. Born Bright: A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America by C. Nicole Mason (memoir)
  4. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn (memoir)
  5. Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond (nonfiction)
  6. From the Ashes: My Story of Being Metis, Homeless, and Finding My Way by Jesse Thistle (memoir)
  7. The Road by Jack London (fiction)
  8. Girlbomb: A Halfway Homeless Memoir by Janice Erlbaum (memoir)
  9. Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America by Jonathan Kozol (nonfiction)
  10. Hunger by Knut Hamsun (fiction)

Sources

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