SEATTLE — No one is better suited to discuss our ever-shifting homeless crisis than the people who live in the camps that have sprung up under bridges, on vacant lots, in greenspaces and along streets all across the Puget Sound region.

To humanize local coverage of the homelessness crisis, The Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine writer Tyrone Beason and Seattle Times photographer Erika Schultz visited outdoor settlements around Seattle’s Sodo District and invited residents to share their stories and concerns, in their own handwriting and from their unique vantage points. Beason and Schultz then compiled these reflections and juxtaposed them with intimate, black-and-white photographs to produce a gripping presentation of the personal stories of Seattle’s homeless.

In tandem with the project launch, The Seattle Times’ Pacific NW Magazine will present “Portraits of Homelessness” on Thursday, May 4, at 7:00 p.m. at Seattle Central Public Library.

The “Portraits of Homelessness” event will feature a panel of Seattle Times journalists moderated by KUOW’s Ross Reynolds. Panelists include Tyrone Beason, project writer; Erika Schultz, project photographer; Daniel Beekman, Seattle Times city government and local politics staff reporter; and Vernal Coleman, Seattle Times staff reporter.

The panel will be followed by the opening of the project’s gallery installation, which will exhibit select photos and journal entries on the third floor of the Seattle Central Public Library for three weeks.

These portraits of homelessness reveal the toughness, shame, humor, generosity and wisdom one finds at the edges of one of the most robust economic booms in the region’s history. And they reveal how close we all are to the edge.

The project will publish online the morning of Thursday, May 4, and will print in The Seattle Times’ Pacific NW Magazine’s Sunday, May 7, edition.

Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.