Pima Partnership Library

Mr. Burns is the author of the best-selling non-fiction book Shelter: One Man’s Journey from Homelessness to Hope. His true story talks about his life living in a Tucson Homeless Shelter in the 1990’s. Chapters from his book have been adopted in several college textbooks. Mr. Burns arrived in Tucson with a few dollars in his pocket and no place to live. Without family, without a job, he had nowhere to go but a homeless shelter. How did a college graduate find himself so close to life on the streets? In a voice that is startling for its simplicity and utter honesty, Mr. Burns tells the story of how he slipped into homelessness, how he learned what it means to live in a place where nobody will notice if you disappear, and how he emerged to tell his story. Mr. Burns has earned a masters degree from Northern Arizona University and a BA degree from Arizona State University. He’s employed with Pima Community College.