New Book Shares Insights and Stories from Unhoused Populations in Phoenix

In an effort to change the perspective of the unhoused population in Phoenix, a group of University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix medical students and premed undergraduates collaborated to construct a book featuring real stories of loss, resilience and survival.

Titled Stories of the Street, it features a collection of narratives compiled from individuals experiencing homelessness in the streets of downtown Phoenix. 

Among the authors of the book are Sophie Wallace, a research technician for the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix and Michael Demangone, a fourth-year medical student at the U of A College of Medicine – Phoenix

Demangone said from the first interview on, the project took about three years to finish. Demangone, who worked extensively with Street Medicine Phoenix in his initial years of medical school, noted that the intention, initially, was to simply hear their stories.

“At first, I just wanted to talk, and I realized very quickly how impactful that was,” Demangone said. “There are people whose stories I could align with. People were so thankful for me sitting down and taking the time to address them as humans and just listen.”

These experience in Street Medicine showed Demangone the power of lending a friendly ear could have. And it sparked an idea that led to him, Wallace and many others collaborating on Stories of the Street.

Wallace spoke about how, as a group, they sought to address one of the biggest needs for those living in the streets: being humanized.

“It’s about making them feel seen and heard,” Wallace said. “With this book, reading it could change perspectives because it helps readers understand how isolating it can be to be treated so differently.”

Much of the imagery of the book conveys an honest depiction of these people’s circumstances. Many of the experiences shared told by those experiencing homelessness are not necessarily about being homeless, but rather stories of specific times in their lives and stories of optimism and overcoming terrible situations.

Divided into different themes — such as adversity, hope and spirituality — readers flipping through the book can view the authenticity and resilience of the publication’s subjects. Additionally, the book highlights what some organizations are doing to help those populations.

“The City of Hope and Grace, Lutheran Church and other organizations are really helping out the homeless and provide their insight,” Demangone said. “Through all of this, readers can get some hidden knowledge and wisdom from all these people who have really dealt with homelessness a lot.”

The book approaches each story with an element of respect. Those who sat with the authors were eager to share their perspectives with the world. 

“It’s one thing to provide resources, which is very helpful, but a lot of these people need compassion and to be listened to and to be met where they’re at,” Wallace said. “A lot of resources are there to help people get out of homelessness, which is so important, but there also needs to be people who are willing to listen to them. And that can sometimes be the gateway to additional resources.”

One motivating force for creating this book was to present how multifaceted of an issue this experience is for people. Each interview conducted featured a unique story of various struggles and overcoming them.

“It’s really important in shifting people’s perspective is understanding that one cancer diagnosis, one car accident or one traumatic brain injury can really impact your life,” Wallace said. “There’s a mix between personal circumstance and personal choice, so it definitely increases your scope of understanding that everybody’s in a different situation.”

Stories of the Street is available to purchase on Amazon and other vendors. The proceeds will be going back toward organizations that are helping the unhoused populations.