The Lost and the Found

Starred review from December 9, 2024
Seeking to put a human face on the homelessness crisis, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Fagan took to his city’s streets to experience the lifestyle firsthand. In this riveting account, he describes camping out on a concrete median nicknamed “Homeless Island” by those who sleep there, forming close-knit relationships with Rita, a former surfer girl now in her 50s, and Tyson, a young man suffering from undiagnosed bipolar disorder. In detailing their stories, Fagan traces the uniquely American slippery slope that leads to homelessness—a combination of high rents, precarious employment, drug addiction, lack of mental health care, a penchant for free-spiritedness verging on stubbornness, and a commitment to individual responsibility that wears away at family ties. Rita, a mother of four, always rebellious by nature, as an adult fell into a bohemian lifestyle in the Florida Keys that eventually led to drug addiction. Tyson, raised middle-class, had an erratic personality that left him floating from job to job, eventually ending up on his grandmother’s couch until she passed away. In an emotional turn, Fagan reports that after publishing profiles on Rita and Tyson, he was contacted by their siblings, who were eager to help. Fagan then chronicles Rita’s and Tyson’s passages through rehab, halfway houses, and on to what seem to be successful new beginnings. The result is a haunting proposal that the homelessness crisis is caused above all by a startling lack of compassion in American society.