When We Walk By

Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America

By: Kevin F. Adler, Donald W. Burnes, Amanda Banh - contributor, Andrijana Bilbija - contributor

Narrated by: Kevin F. Adler

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.

©2023 Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burnes (P)2023 North Atlantic Books

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)

Comprehensive examination of homelessness

I was gifted the physical book by John Graham Housing & Services, a shelter and service coordination non-profit in Addison County, VT as I completed nine years on their board. I then purchased the Audible book and have been using the physical book for review and as a resource. Despite my experience at John Graham, this book gave me a more thorough understanding of all the factors contributing to homelessness. A book cited by the authors, EVICTED, was very helpful, but not nearly as comprehensive. It shares EVICTED's quality of using personal stories of 12 people who have experienced homelessness to illustrate and educate the reader on the broken systems leading to homelessness and the array of potential positive approaches. I appreciated the authors emphasizing "person first" thinking about those who are experiencing homelessness. It ends with very specific next steps for the reader. The book has a good website that further describes the book and the various programs that Miracle Messages, the organization founded by Kevin Adler, has to offer. I am now a phone buddy with a person experiencing homelessness through Miracle Messages.

A compassionat overview of homelessness in America

This book was eye-opening, heart-felt, and thought provoking. I felt like I had a lot of my assumptions challenged by this book, and I think I have a better understanding of the problem of homelessness. My biggest take-away was that many people experiencing homelessness may not be visible, and that it is important to keep in mind that we are all individuals, and everyone's circumstances are different.

I think this is an important issue for people to understand, and reading this book is a great start.

A must read!

I think this book is importantly for everyone to read, it really helps put into perspective how we can start helping our friends and family that have fallen on difficult times!

When We Walk By

I Love the whole book. It is an excellent analysis of our broken systems State, Local and Federal Government, to help adequately the poor and distress, who fall on hard times. A nation who fails to address adequately the homeless problem will eventually die itself.

We can help our unhoused neighbors!

Kevin Adler shows how each of us can help those who are not fortunate enough to have a home and family to live with. Through touching real-life stories, he demonstrates the critical need that we all have for relationships. His identification of “Relational Poverty” affects all of us, but the unhoused disproportionately. There are messages here in how we can all give more than a hand out: how we can improve the lives and quality of life for our communities, housed and unhoused. Through his grass-roots approach, anyone can make a significant improvement in a homeless person’s life.

Insightful and perfectly researched.

The truth about this issue is going to be significantly easier to understand if you read this book. Assuming that you are able to digest it’s contents. Biases are a very common form of misunderstandings at the root. I also absolutely love how the book finishes with a set of instructions for how to approach a human being experiencing homelessness, that is spot on. Personally I am going to use a question and answer platform along with my business social media to further the work done in creating this book. I hope you will be inspired to do this too.

Great overview of a complex problem

I like how the authors do a great job of covering so many facets of houselessness in a relatively short time and with good objectivity and data while not losing sight of the humanity of the topic. An important read for us all, especially for those in urban areas, those who do or might interact with those who are unhoused, or those who want to know more about the topic.