Homelessness can impact anyone. Unfortunately, no matter what our job or economic status may be, we are all a setback or two away from crisis. The nonprofit Friendship Place believes that our unhoused neighbors are just that — neighbors who deserve our support in difficult times. It’s vital that we educate ourselves on how we can help.

To inform the community, Friendship Place is kicking off the Friendship Place Book Club, at which attendees will discuss titles related to issues of homelessness and poverty. At the first meeting, on October 22nd, Friendship Place staff and friends will explore Brian Goldstone’s Pulitzer Prize-winning There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America.

To write it, Goldstone spent years with five families in Atlanta who were working full time while unhoused, sleeping in cars and motels and then getting their children to school the next morning. The topic of this book is so important and reflects a huge part of the work that Friendship Place does every day. The conversation is free and open to anyone, and light refreshments will be provided. We hope you’ll join us!

The Friendship Place Book Club meets Thursday, Oct. 22, at 6 p.m., at Friendship Place, 1 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC. For more information and to RSVP, contact Michael Anne Cullen at [email protected]. 

Chris Rutledge, a frequent contributor to the Independent, is vice president of external affairs at Friendship Place.