HOME-LESS

<p>HOME-LESS: Voices of Survival in a World That Forgot Us is a raw unflinching novel based on multiple true accounts plunging into the hidden world of those surviving on the razor's edge of a rapidly gentrifying American city.<br>Dee the narrator-a former programmer and activist haunted by trauma and a devastating robbery in Florida-returns to Charlotte North Carolina only to find himself a ghost in the shiny cold city. His only sanctuary becomes a sprawling abandoned warehouse and the shadows under the city's concrete bridges where he reluctantly begins to stitch together a new fragile life.<br>Survival is a daily negotiation and Dee soon gathers a crew of marginalized souls bound by shared necessity and unspoken rules. This is more than a story of shelter; it is a deep look into the human cost of being forgotten.<br>Meet the Crew: Kings Without a Castle<br>* Jerz (Ty'Quaan): The loud charismatic heart of the group a Brim gang member and proud father of many children. He spins chaos into Bonversation making the warehouse feel like a kingdom even as the guilt of his absence weighs heavy.<br>* Frank: The elder statesman 55 a crack survivor and a historian under the bridge. He preaches that the true enemy isn't the streets but the systems-gentrification outsourcing and banks-that are dismantlin' us piece by piece.<br>* Dump (Reese): Lean quiet and dangerous. A Bloods member and dealer of Ice and weed he moves with surgical precision but is secretly tormented by spiritual addiction and his family's long history on the streets.<br>* Nolo: A slim Louisiana transplant his country twang is laced with sorrow. Addicted to Ice he carries the secret of his bisexuality beneath his Blood affiliation seeking refuge on a park bench and chasing a warmth the city will never give.<br>* BJ: Young but aged by liquor he battles epilepsy and drowns his pain in alcohol using his loud broken singing voice as a defiant form of visibility against a world that wants him erased.<br>* Fat Boy (Chase): A man of violent contradictions his explosive rage masks a deeper fear fueled by a relentless cycle of Xanax Coke Ice and beer.<br>* Paulette: An undeniable force-loud sharp-tongued and a master scammer living in government housing. Her relationship with the limping comedian JR is a toxic ballet of love and war a perfect reflection of survival wrapped in fear.<br>The narrative weaves through their intertwined lives exposing how addiction is often a form of relief-a doorway out of the storm-and how shame is the drug that never runs out. Dee realizes his own bitter irony: a former digital hacker now delivers food for tips watching his sharp edges become blunt tools.<br>HOME-LESS is a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit. It asks: How does one find dignity when society sees only trash in the shadows? It is a chorus of voices proving that even when the world subtracts the man multiplies the misery and tries to erase him piece by piece survival remains a sacred rebellion. In the end Dee carries away the ultimate lesson from Paulette: to survive you must be Unapologetically You.</p>