Ethnographic Research for Voluntary Agencies Serving Homeless Families in New York City

Abstract

In 1988, New York City nightly sheltered more than 15,000 individual members of 5,000 families with children in its emergency shelter system. On a given day, tens of thousands of other families stayed temporarily in the apartments of their friends and relatives. Such families are incipiently homeless because they are the ones who will have to leave if the stress of crowding or lack of privacy in these homes becomes too great. Because of the. high cost of rentals, almost their only chance of finding an apartment of their own (unless they have an income of at least $25,000) is in becoming eligible for a rehabilitated apartment owned by the city through tax default. This eligibility begins only after a family has been in the shelter system continuously for at least 12 months, however.