Learning Library
Lotus Publications
Lotus Campaign is proud to share a selection of Impact Reports, which chronicle results achieved with the support of our donor community.
The Lotus Team’s Top Picks
We’ve gathered the latest must-reads, videos and podcasts about the causes and solutions to homelessness. Find quick takes and deep dives here.
Recommended Articles
One of the leading researchers on social impact and mobility breaks down why where you live matters. This is a key connection to Lotus’s approach of housing its sponsored residents of the Landlord Participation Program in “Neighborhoods of Opportunity.”
In this New York Times opinion piece author Tracy Kidder argues that homelessness is a symptom of interconnected societal failures, including issues in mental health care, affordable housing, and the justice system. He calls for broader societal commitment to structural changes and investments in housing and support services to effectively address the crisis.
2025 State of the Nation’s Housing
In 2025, households and housing markets face an ever-more challenging environment, with the looming possibility of an economic downturn exacerbating the nation’s enormous housing challenges.
Recommended Books
Homelessness is a Housing Problem
Using accessible statistics, the researchers test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
A critically acclaimed novel highlighting the trials and tribulations of eight families in Milwaukee detailing the many struggles that low-income families face when searching for safe housing including mounting fees, discrimination, and slumlords.
America’s housing crisis stems not from scarcity of resources, but from political and structural choices that limit supply and opportunity. Klein and Thompson call for a shift toward abundance-minded policy — build more, faster, and more equitably — as a necessary step to end the homelessness crisis.
Recommended Videos / Podcasts
What We Learned From the Deepest Look at Homelessness in Decades
Ezra Klein and Jerusalem Demas contextualize the results of the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco report on homelessness and how the findings compare to homelessness rates and experiences throughout the country.
Episode 62: Who Experiences Homelessness, and Why with Margot Kushel (Pathways Home Part 2)
An engaging conversation with Dr. Margot Kushel, a lead researcher on the largest representative study of homelessness in California, focusing on who experiences homelessness, how they became homeless, and necessary policy changes.
Episode 7/14/25: The Shocking Truth About Homelessness
What if everything you believe about homelessness is wrong? In this eye-opening episode, Kwame Christian sits down with Beth Silverman, co-founder of the Lotus Campaign, to reveal the hidden economic drivers behind America’s housing crisis — and why traditional charity models often do more harm than good. If you're ready to ditch the myths and discover real solutions, this episode is for you.