Only the Lonely examines homelessness at its point of moral failure—where systems delay care, responsibility dissolves, and human dignity is quietly abandoned. Through the lives of forgotten veterans, children aging out of foster care, and elderly Americans left without support, the book reveals homelessness not as an anomaly, but as the foreseeable outcome of neglect allowed to persist over time.
Rather than focusing on crisis after collapse, Only the Lonely exposes how suffering accumulates long before people reach the street—when intervention is deferred, accountability is fragmented, and compassion is separated from action. These stories illuminate a society that manages visible disorder while ignoring the deeper mechanisms that create it.
As the failures come into focus, the book advances a clear argument: the resources to intervene already exist. What is missing is the will to consolidate care, prioritize prevention, and restore stability before loss becomes permanent. Only the Lonely calls for a shift from symbolic concern to structural responsibility, insisting that honor is measured not by intent, but by outcomes—and that a nation’s conscience is revealed in how long it allows abandonment to continue.