Shakedown Street — Jonathan Nasaw

Shakedown Street...it's not a place, it's a state of mind. That's why fourteen-year old Caro decides that no matter what, she'll survive by panhandling and picking trash, while her mother scrounges every cent from a nowhere job so she can get them a Place to live.There are good people living on the dangerous streets — Rass, Rudy, and Wharf Rat — who teach Caro how to make it in a world where most people don't care about the homeless. Caro and Momma feel lucky when Rudy finds an abandoned house in Berkeley to use as a squat. Soon the place will be torn down, so the two are in a race to find a real home, the home Caro's been dreaming of. But dreams never got anyone off Shakedown Street. Caro and Momma need luck, and they need cash, fast.