The Lost and the Found A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family, and Second Chances

A “riveting, deeply compassionate” (The New York Times) narrative of homelessness, despair, and hope.

Award-winning San Francisco Chronicle journalist Kevin Fagan has been covering homelessness for decades and has spent extensive time on the streets for his reporting. In The Lost and the Found, Fagan introduces us to Rita and Tyson, two unhoused people who were rescued by their families with the help of his own reporting, and chronicles their extraordinary struggles to pull themselves out of homelessness and addiction.

Having experienced homelessness himself, Fagan has always brought a deep understanding to his subjects and has written here more than just a story of individuals experiencing homelessness, but also a compelling look at the link between homelessness and addiction and an incisive commentary on housing and equality. The Lost and the Found ends with both enormous tragedy and triumph to humanize this national calamity, forever changing the way we see the unhoused.

Kevin Fagan is a longtime, award-winning reporter, having spent over three decades at the San Francisco Chronicle. He won the Bill Workman Award from the San Francisco Press Club, the James Aronson Award for Social Justice in Journalism, and the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. He has also been nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize. During his career, he has covered homelessness, the 9/11 terror attacks, serial killers, California’s wildfires, and much more. Follow him on X @KevinChron.