Review by Eleanor J. Bader

The National Alliance to End Homelessness estimates that 30 percent of unhoused Americans are children and their caretakers. And while every school district is mandated by federal law to address the needs of kids living in shelters, doubled-or-tripled up, in cars, or on the streets, The Three Melissas underscores the learning challenges that result from housing precarity.

The Three Melissas: The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness, a self-help manual for those navigating extreme poverty, was written by long-time advocates Diane Nilan and Diana Bowman for the unhoused, but it centers on the experiences of three women named Melissa. One lost her home after fleeing domestic abuse, another was evicted after becoming too ill to work, and the third lost her home in a hurricane.

They’re a sympathetic trio, and this slim volume provides a firsthand account of how they’ve accessed school resources, shared space, and found nutritious food, seasonally appropriate clothing, culturally sensitive medical and psychiatric care, and permanent shelter. But unhoused individuals are not the only readers who will benefit from their strategies: Social workers, teachers, school administrators, medical staff, and other ‘helping professionals’ will get an up-close introduction to the indignities that follow the loss of a home and the difficulties of navigating often-callous bureaucracies. Complete with recommendations for lawmakers, The Three Melissas also suggest numerous policy shifts to benefit undomiciled families.

The Three Melissas: The Practical Guide to Surviving Family Homelessness by Diane Nilan and Diana Bowman. Charles Bruce Foundation, September 2024.

Reviewer bio: Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, NY-based journalist who writes about books and domestic social issues for Truthout, Rain Taxi, The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Indypendent.