This is In Conversation from Apple News.

I'm Shmita Basu.

Today, why so many working people are homeless in America.

A few years ago, Celeste Walker found herself in an impossible situation.

She was living in Atlanta with her three kids.

She was working a warehouse job but had recently been diagnosed with breast and ovarian

cancer and was undergoing treatment.

On top of everything else, she had lost her housing and was desperate

for help. So she went to Gateway Center, a local organization that provides assistance to homeless

families. She got there before dawn, and there was already a line going around the building,

women, children, and men trying to get help. That's journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone.

Brian says after hours of waiting, Celeste was finally seen by a caseworker, but...

During her interview with the caseworker, she was basically told that she wasn't homeless in the right way, that she didn't fit the definition of what

is called literal homelessness, which is people on the street or in shelters. Celeste had been

living with her children in a squalid extended stay hotel. And the caseworker told her that

in order to access resources and support, she would need to go to a homeless shelter.

And Celeste said, well, I don't want to go to a shelter, but okay, fine.

Like if that's what we have to do.

And then the caseworker paused, and she said, well, actually, you mentioned that your son is 14 years old.

The family shelters don't allow boys over the age of 13.

So you would have to be. So he would have to,

you would have to be separated and he would have to go to a men's shelter.

...