Unsheltered Love

Homelessness, Hunger and Hope in a City under Siege

Traci Medford-rosow, Morgan James Publishing (MAR 14) Softcover $18.95 (272pp), 978-1-63195-982-0

Revealing the power of being present and listening to others, Traci Medford-rosow’s memoir Unsheltered Love covers her encounters with people facing homelessness during COVID-19.

In the early days of the pandemic, Medfordrosow and her husband Joel began taking walks to give food and supplies to homeless people near their home in New York City. Along the way, they listened to people’s stories and grappled with their own privilege and desire to create lasting change. Across a year and half span, Medford-rosow shares the stories of those she interacted with, including Maggie Wright, whose clear, honest voice and willingness to share her story is a gift. Her journal entries reveal her pain, hope, how she learned to trust again, and how she began rebuilding all she’d lost.

Moved along by engaging conversations that reveal both Medford-rosow’s perspective and the perspectives of Maggie and other homeless people, the book includes insights about life on the streets, where money helps to buy food, but also when it comes to buying a cup of coffee in order to use the bathroom at Mcdonald’s. So, too, are there grueling truths about what it means to try to help, and about how investments of time and money often yield few results. Still, the book is generous with hope—both from Medford-rosow and from the people she’s met. Medford-rosow is humble in revealing what she had to learn the hard way: the book’s late updates on the people covered herein include both positive developments and evidence that not everyone makes it through.

Unsheltered Love is a moving memoir about pandemic connections formed with people facing homelessness.