The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) will welcome acclaimed journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Brian Goldstone to the Capital Region on Thursday, October 15, for Community Conversations with Brian Goldstone, a day of events exploring housing affordability, working homelessness and what these challenges mean for New Hampshire’s families, employers and communities.
Goldstone is the author of “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”, winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. The book is a deeply reported account of families navigating an increasingly common but often hidden reality: holding jobs and working to support their families while being unable to afford stable housing.
Through a Chamber luncheon and an intimate evening dinner and conversation, CCEH will bring Goldstone’s national reporting into dialogue with the housing challenges playing out here in New Hampshire. At the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, an individual would need to work 216 hours per week or 5.4 full-time jobs to afford a 2-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent (FMR) of $2,040.
“Brian’s work challenges many of the assumptions we have about what homelessness looks like and who experiences it,” said Karen Jantzen, Executive Director of the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness. “These conversations give us an opportunity to look beyond the statistics and better understand what housing instability means for our neighbors—including people who are working every day—and what it means for the health and strength of our entire community.”
Chamber Luncheon: Housing and New Hampshire’s Workforce
The day will begin with a luncheon presented in partnership with the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Goldstone will deliver a keynote address about his research and the experiences chronicled in “There Is No Place for Us”, followed by a moderated panel examining how the themes of his book are playing out across New Hampshire and the Greater Concord region.
The panel will bring together perspectives from state and local government, economic and fiscal policy, community health, and housing advocacy. The conversation will explore the connections among housing affordability, workforce stability, economic opportunity and homelessness—and why housing has become an increasingly important issue for New Hampshire employers and business leaders.
Luncheon tickets are $40 for Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce members and $50 for non-members.
Registration is available on the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce’s Events page.
An Evening with Brian Goldstone
The conversation will continue that evening at Pembroke Pines Country Club with an intimate dinner and fireside conversation with Goldstone.
The evening begins with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and the program at 6:30 p.m. Goldstone will discuss the people and stories behind “There Is No Place for Us“, his years of immersive research and reporting, and what he learned about the changing relationship between work, housing and homelessness in America.
The evening will conclude with an audience Q&A and book signing at 8 p.m.
Individual tickets are $100, and reserved tables of 10 are $1,000. Tickets must be purchased by October 7. Proceeds from the evening benefit the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness and its work to provide pathways out of homelessness for people throughout the Greater Concord region.
Tickets and additional event information are available through the CCEH Community Conversations webpage www.concordhomeless.org/events/communityconversations.
Copies of “There Is No Place for Us” will also be available for purchase through Concord’s independent Gibson’s Bookstore at both events. 10% of book sales now through October 15 through Gibson’s will be donated to CCEH.
Community Support Makes the Conversation Possible
CCEH gratefully recognizes the businesses and organizations whose sponsorship makes Community Conversations with Brian Goldstone possible.
Bank of New Hampshire is the event’s Presenting Sponsor.
Eastern Bank and JH Spain are Leadership Sponsors.
AmeriHealth Caritas New Hampshire, Mason + Rich, PA, and Rath, Young and Pignatelli, PC are Community Sponsors.
The evening program is generously supported by the Bowler Bartlett Foundation of the New Hampshire Medical Society as the Dinner Sponsor.
“We are incredibly grateful to the organizations that recognized the importance of bringing this conversation to New Hampshire,” said Jantzen. “Their support allows us to create a space where people from across sectors can come together, learn from Brian’s work and consider what all of us—businesses, government, nonprofits and community members—can do to help create a region where having a safe and stable home is within reach.”
About Brian Goldstone
Brian Goldstone is a journalist and anthropologist whose work focuses on poverty, housing and inequality in the United States. For “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”, Goldstone spent years following families experiencing housing instability in Atlanta, documenting the lives of people who worked yet remained unable to secure stable housing.
His reporting illuminates a population that traditional understandings of homelessness can overlook: families living in extended-stay hotels, doubled up with others, moving between temporary accommodations or otherwise living without a stable home while continuing to work, raise children and participate in their communities.
About the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness
The Concord Coalition to End Homelessness (CCEH) works to eliminate the causes of homelessness in the Greater Concord community by providing permanent supportive housing, operating the Concord Resource Center and Emergency Winter Shelter, connecting people with services and housing opportunities, and engaging the community in collaborative solutions to homelessness. CCEH believes that everyone deserves a safe, decent, and stable place to call home.