By "positive", I mean that homeless people aren't treated merely as a "problem" to be "solved" but as three-dimensional human beings who love and laugh and have things worth saying. Fiction or non-fiction, and homelessness doesn't have to be the only or even the main theme, as long as it is an important one. Even if you feel homelessness is unduly romanticised, that's ok (at least as far as this post is concerned). I'd like to find books from a number of different countries if possible. Examples that I've read (all fiction) include:
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
Tokyo Ueno Station by Yū Miri
The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
A couple I haven't read (non-fiction), but have heard good things about:
Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets by Lars Eigner
The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City by Jennifer Toth
And a couple of movies that would fit the bill if they were books rather than movies:
Les Amants du Pont Neuf
The Fisher King
by finder_outer
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**Fiction:**
***Down and Out in Paris and London*** **by George Orwell** – classic semi-autobiographical novel about living rough, with wit, empathy, and solidarity.
***Stone Butch Blues*** **by Leslie Feinberg** – not *about* homelessness, but it’s a recurring reality for the protagonist, treated with compassion and nuance.
***Ironweed*** **by William Kennedy** – Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about drifters in Depression-era Albany; grim at times but deeply human.
***A Street Cat Named Bob*** **by James Bowen** – memoir-like but novelistic in tone, about a London busker and the stray cat that changes his life.
***Evicted*** **by Matthew Desmond** (nonfiction written like a novel) – set in Milwaukee, it treats every subject as complex, fully human, not just case studies.
***King*** **by John Berger** – written from the perspective of a dog living with homeless companions in France; lyrical, compassionate, and political.
**Non-fiction / memoir:**
***Travels with Lizbeth*** **by Lars Eighner** – you already flagged this one, but it’s wonderful: funny, sharp, and unsentimental.
***Tell Them Who I Am*** **by Elliot Liebow** – an ethnography of homeless women in shelters, highly empathetic.
***Sidewalk*** **by Mitchell Duneier** – about book vendors and street life in New York; humanizing and community-focused.
***No Fixed Abode*** **by Charlie Carroll** – travelogue across Britain, focusing on the voices of unhoused people.
***Street Spirit*** **by Robert Ellsberg (ed.)** – collects writings from homeless columnists, showing humor, wisdom, and resilience.