From 2015 to 2019, homelessness became a subject of heated controversy in a small town in Southern Vermont and an increasingly widely covered topic throughout the country.

Matthew Vernon Whalan started following homelessness in the town's local politics and news during those years, and noticed two recurring themes in local discourse and coverage:

1) Missing from almost all local news coverage and town Selectboard meetings were the voices of homeless people themselves. 2) In Brattleboro, openly demonizing or ignoring poor and homeless people is more normalized than demonizing or ignoring any other minority group.

Counterbalancing the dominant narrative created by people who are not homeless about people who are, Whalan spent every day and night for years listening to homeless people and writing their stories and perspectives.