Homelessness, Step by Step

Over the course of several months at the end of 2017, I worked with The New York Times Metro desk to provide a glimpse into the homelessness crisis in New York City. At the time of publication, an estimated 77,000 people were homeless. We traced different families through each stage of homelessness, from the time they applied to get into the system to the day they secured keys to independent housing. The city, by law, must provide shelter to anyone in need. But as we took a timely look at the crisis, we found that perhaps the only thing more complicated than getting into a shelter was getting out.

Read the piece in The New York Times

Read the Times Insider about the project

See the NYT Print Layout

Brittany Jackson speaks with Amma Asantewaa, social work supervisor, at the PATH shelter intake center in Bronx, New York.

Brittany Jackson and her son Preston Jackson head to the shelter where they were placed by city officials after leaving the PATH shelter intake center in Bronx, New York.

Pedro Cordero Jr. prepares for his day inside the room he shares with his father Pedro Cordero at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York

Pedro Cordero Jr. takes part in Camp WIN, a program provided during the summer for children living in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York. The kids are provided meals, play games and take part in educational activities.

Shantae Young and her children Julian, Shaira and Shayla, say grace before eating dinner inside the shelter they're living in temporarily in the Bronx, New York.

Desiree Rivera looks at an apartment along with a housing counselor from the homeless shelter she lives in in Brooklyn, New York. Ultimately, Rivera decided that this was not the apartment for her

Madelyn Brito packs up her belongings alongside her 1-year-old son Cameron the night before moving out of the Kingston Family Residence homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York

Landlord Israel M. Samet hands Madelyn Brito keys to her new apartment at the city's Human Resources Administration offices on East 16th Street in New York, New York. This set of keys later turned out to be the wrong set, keeping Brito waiting on the sidewalk in the cold for a maintenance worker to unlock the building.

Mover Marc McCauley carries the belongings of Madelyn Brito out of the Kingston Family Residence homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York.

Madelyn Brito stands in her new apartment for the first time with all her belongings in East New York as she moves out of the Kingston Family Residence homeless shelter in Brooklyn, New York.