Review: "The Lost and the Found" by Kevin Fagan

The Lost and the Found by Kevin Fagan
Published February 2025 via Atria
★★★★

Rita and Tyson had something in common: They both had families who loved them. And they had something else in common: They were both living homeless in San Francisco. Different backgrounds had led them both to struggle with drug use, which in turn had led to the streets, and so it goes.

Fagan's The Lost and the Found tells their stories in some depth, based on months of in-depth, on-the-streets reportage—one of Fagan's particular interests as a reporter—and then years of follow-up with both Rita and Tyson. This ends up being both a general overview of homelessness in the US (and the policies that hurt, and those that help) and a compassionate, in-depth portrait of two of the people affected.

Being homeless in a big city, even with a lot of pals around, actually takes a lot of work. Not having a home to go to means every night is a coin toss, hoping someone won't cave in your teeth with a boot just to steal whatever you have in your pockets. You can find your regular haunts, and if you're lucky, you wind up at some place like Homeless Island—but even then it means putting up the tent or tarp or cardboard, arranging the shopping carts like a wall, or finding blankets to replace the ones ripped off while you were off copping dope. (loc. 793*)

This is reportage built on a long-haul project and slowly built trust. Fagan could have spent most of his time doing independent research and only interviewed people affected by homelessness for the sake of quotes, but this is a much stronger book for the time and effort he put into building relationships. In places I think the book leans a little heavily on foreshadowing and sentimentality, though perhaps that's an inherent risk of doing work where you get to know and care about your subjects.

In addition to telling these specific stories—and touching on some of the stories of other people living on San Francisco's streets—Fagan delves into some of the hows and whys of the extensive homeless population in San Francisco, and what interventions have and have not been effective to get people off the streets and into more stable housing. It's not a primer on homelessness, but it's useful context for those hoping to learn a bit more in the context of personal stories. Overall, a very thoughtful read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and might not be final.