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00:00The whole story. I'm Anderson Cooper. The growing affordability crisis in the U.S. is impacting
00:05working families all over the country, especially in New York City, where the rising cost of basic
00:10necessities and a historic housing shortage have contributed to the highest rate of homelessness
00:15here since the Great Depression. The next mayor of New York will be selected in the coming days,
00:20and the candidates have all campaigned on fixing the crisis. But proposed federal cuts in 2026
00:26may worsen the problem since more than a million New Yorkers rely on federal housing assistance.
00:32If that is taken away, even more families, including children, will be left without a stable home.
00:37Right now, one in seven New York City public school students is considered homeless,
00:42the highest it has ever been. Over the past year, our team has documented some of these young people
00:48as they navigate finding places to sleep while attending school or trying to find jobs.
00:53In this next hour, you're going to witness how they managed to survive with hope and resilience
00:59in spite of their struggles.
01:23I woke up, like, at seven, because I heard a lot of noise.
01:42And when I was like, we got to pack up, like, speed it up.
01:52I was just, hmm.
01:55I didn't even know how to express myself.
01:59Well, like, now we got to go to the shelter.
02:01Let's go.
02:24We didn't have to go to the street and go to a refuge.
02:46And the most affected are the children of one.
03:16What I love about being a mom is just the quality time I have with my children.
03:45Okay, hold on, I'm serious.
03:50I just love being around them a lot.
03:53The sense of them having to need me, I need them.
03:57It's like having a bond, a friendship.
04:00I just love being a mom.
04:02I got my hair wet.
04:05You got your hair wet. It's okay. You're fine.
04:08Okay, go have fun. Go have fun.
04:15Make sure you just wet your legs and your feet.
04:20When I was younger, I just thought about going to college, becoming a doctor.
04:26I did not see myself actually become a mom or two, especially a mom.
04:33From the outside people that have not been through my situation before, I felt a lot of judgment.
04:39Like, oh, how are you homeless? Because you're so well put together.
04:44The kids are so well put together. Their hair is done. Your nails is done.
04:48And that's the misconception. Not everyone that is homeless sleeps on the streets.
04:54Not everyone that's homeless goes on the train and begs for money.
04:59I don't beg for money. I go to work every single day.
05:02I go to work every day. The kids, they go to school every day.
05:08The way how the world is set up right now is, it's not making any sense.
05:13It's causing the homelessness. The rent out here is ridiculous.
05:19Grocery prices is ridiculous.
05:21How much you have to pay in daycare and then having to go to work just to pay for daycare but not having enough money for food is the issue.
05:32We can split it. So you get one half, I get the other half. It's just for this morning.
05:38I only have me and my kids to rely on. Nobody's really around. My mom's not here.
05:45A lot of my family are estranged from me. It's very tough. It's been hard. It's been really hard.
06:07Alright, let's see what we can do. Let's see what I can do.
06:11You fix your bed, you got everything, everything's off the floor.
06:17Yes.
06:19There is work in my place. There's work in everywhere.
06:30So I remember, it was like around my 17th birthday. Going towards my 18th, I was pregnant.
06:38was pregnant. My mom found it out. She was very angry with me. Didn't want to
06:43talk to me, talk down to me to eventually her putting me out. Since you
06:50want to do what you want to do, just go. So I'm in the backyard. It's in the
06:55winter. It's cold. I have my daughter Malia just trying to hold out until the
07:02morning until I got to go to school, at least so I could have somewhere to take
07:06my baby, me and my baby.
07:26It's been hard for them because they can remember all the experiences, the bad and
07:31the good. They remember having to celebrate their birthday in a homeless
07:37shelter. They remember us being evicted. They remember sleeping in the car. My
07:43only thing that was on my mind was like the police will come. They'll see me
07:48sleeping in a car. CPS will get involved and them taking my children. My
07:53children are my life. I try my hardest with my kids and them being taken away
07:58from me. I I wouldn't be able to make it. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be able to make it. I
08:05wouldn't know what to do.
08:10I want to make it pretty.
08:13Oh, you wanted to make it pretty. You want to decorate.
08:18Yes, that's my happy girl. I love her.
08:23You know, there are a lot of misconceptions about who's homeless in New York City, and most New Yorkers don't
08:28really know who is homeless. Right now, 70% of the people in shelter are families with children.
08:38The other reality about homelessness is the heads of these households. We see it when 92% of the time
08:45are single women who are working, but don't make enough money to cover the rent. This is the forgotten
08:53face of homelessness. There's so many stereotypes about homeless people, but one of them is that it's
09:02your fault that you're homeless. That is not the reality. The most significant factor which determines
09:10whether someone will be a homeless adult is if they were a homeless child.
09:15My name is Swanee Ramos, and I am the principal of PS MS 188, the Island School in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
09:23We have about 48 to 52% of students in temporary housing.
09:29I think that the fact that as a small school, I think that the fact that as a small school,
09:35a school that we have to be a homeless child, the children, the children, the children, the
09:38children, the children, the children, the children, and the children.
09:40My name is Swanee Ramos, and I am the principal of PS MS 188, the Island School in the Lower East Side
09:41of Manhattan. We have about 48 to 52% of students in temporary housing.
09:46I think that the fact that as a small school, a 3K-8 school with 420 students, having 52% of our
10:05students in temporary housing definitely let us know that in New York City as a whole, there's a lot of
10:12students that are in the same situation. It's definitely a crisis. It's definitely devastating.
10:18It is definitely sad.
10:24I think that as adults, right, in New York City, I don't think that we have a sense
10:32of how many children or families do not have a stable home.
10:37And the lack of great jobs out there to provide for the families is part of that root cause of
10:52homelessness in New York City.
11:09Deja, she stated, I need to do whatever it takes for us to do what we need to, stay together as a
11:16family. And for me, I think that that's what gave it all. Let me give her an opportunity.
11:24So I actually applied for being a school aide at PS 188. After that, I ended up working for PS 188 in
11:33April of this year. And when I went from my first day, they noticed that I had kids because I always
11:47kept talking about my kids and they enrolled them and they was able to start the next day of when I
11:52first started working. I would love to be able to continue to share with everyone. Every story of
12:04someone that's homeless is not the same. That there's definitely hope. I've seen it a hundred percent.
12:12I have seen a great improvement in both. With Brooklyn and especially Malia, they are talking to other
12:18students that are going through the same process of being in a shelter or being homeless, but at the
12:24same time are getting the support that they need to become better.
12:32This is the final touch, the ears.
12:41Brooklyn, do you know what homelessness is?
12:44That means they're sad because they don't have any money or food to eat because they don't have
12:58any money to buy anything. Some people just eat from the trash or some people just beg for food.
13:08Are you homeless?
13:14Tell me what you want people to know about you.
13:27Because some people are rich and some people are not. But when I was born with my mom, I came beautiful.
13:44It's not OK.
14:00Melissa is going to do your intake, OK?
14:05You can stand right here. She's going to make you an ID.
14:07good morning guys how's everybody when you think of folks who work in these type of settings it's
14:23like I'm saving someone and I'm rescuing them and I think the way the street work approaches
14:29the work is like no we are honored to walk alongside the young people in their journey
14:33my name is Sebastian Vonte I'm the associate vice president of street work programs at safe
14:39horizon we have three core programs so there are two drop-in centers then we have our crisis shelter
14:48and then lastly we have street outreach hello guys we work for safe horizon handing out hot
14:55meals to folks you're welcome meeting young people literally on the street and connecting
15:02them to the drop-ins or to shelters stay safe and out of trouble okay I think youth homelessness is
15:09a crisis in the city what complicates it is that our young people are often invisible right because
15:17when you think of homelessness folks have a very clear picture for themselves what that looks like
15:22right it's someone literally sleeping on the street tattered clothing and for many of our young people
15:27part of their survival part of how they are able to survive is by blending in and at our drop-in centers
15:35we offer what we call like a one-stop-shop model we try to bring as many resources available to our
15:43program Oliver did you get your mail ticket no problem appearance is very important to a lot of our
15:49young people many of our young people work so making sure they don't have an odor making sure that their
15:55clothes are clean and that they're maintaining their hygiene we wash clothes for free for our clients we
16:07have feminine products we also have soap deodorant razors we have two showers so clients any day can take a
16:15shower here many of the young folks that we see that come to our program come to us through word
16:28of mouth like another young person who's navigating homelessness told another young person who's also
16:34navigating homelessness we want to know do you need anything we provide them that support in finding
16:39shelter hi money how are you some of your packages came let me get them for you
16:48so we can go back to my office i know we can talk about the housing option so we can just come back is that okay
16:52okay so actually right now i newly became a street homeless
16:58hi my name is jabari jones from safe horizon street work how are you doing today
17:07yeah i'm doing fine i have an individual just interested if you all have any available beds today
17:15okay okay thank you so much
17:19they didn't have any beds today but i'm going to give you their number you can also check back in the
17:26morning and i can check in the morning hi my name is joe westmacott and i'm the director of housing and
17:31benefits resources at safe horizon street work project there is definitely not a reliable count
17:37of how many youth and young adults experience homelessness in new york city currently there's 800
17:41youth shelter beds in the city and given that on the coldest night of the year we knew that there
17:46were over 10 000 youth counted as homeless that's obviously not sufficient so if a young person comes
17:52into our drop-in center and says i need shelter tonight odds are there will not be any available
17:59beds because the youth shelters are always full
18:06so now currently what i do is around 8 pm i head to the middle of times square because that's where
18:14the overnight shelter i go to is so those types of shelters you're not allowed to sleep uh like flat on
18:21like the floor or on a mattress we can only sleep on fold-out chairs you don't really think about
18:30how like bad it seems or it looks because that's like your own option this is better than
18:36me being on like a sidewalk i was supposed to make a left not right uh so we're gonna go this way
18:51at 6 a.m they wake us up and then they're like bye
18:58and then we have like the whole day to figure out what we're doing and so i try to fill my day with like
19:04activities and like things to do got different drop-ins kind of like here all over the city
19:11hello i'm here for a vote class new york city operates eight homeless youth drop-in centers
19:19five of which one in each borough operates 24 hours a day they are not allowed to have sleeping furniture
19:25so they can't have cots or anything because they are not licensed to be shelters
19:29the overnight drop-in centers are life-saving stop gaps to help young people stay off of literally
19:37the streets it's an important stop gap and it's also definitely not enough
19:41i don't think i've ever had a stable home
19:51so my dad i have no idea who he is i never met him i've never seen him
19:56i didn't grow up with my mother uh i grew up with my aunt i was given to my aunt when i was one years
20:03old my aunt she started to have mental breaks um she lost her job um she pulled me out of school
20:14often i had to take care of myself type of thing i often slept on the couch on the floor when i was
20:20younger there was just nowhere for me to sleep i will say that that was the point though where like
20:25i had a lot of um depression and a lot of um a lot of suicidal ideation was 10 because i was just
20:35really sad at that point because i kind of felt really helpless at that point
20:42where are the one trips
20:50so on the weekends many of the drop-in centers are actually closed
20:59so what i typically do is i honestly just try to find ways to waste time
21:07and it's usually like on transportation but i definitely try to use as many like coping skills
21:13as i can and most of the time that's my headphones that's my music
21:20music definitely brings me joy i like producing it i like composing it i like writing it i like
21:27singing it so i hadn't made music in a while honestly because it's really hard there's not
21:36really a good place to do it so i went to the shelter restroom and i closed the little window that
21:41we have in there what i do is i just literally i'm on my phone like this but i'm playing a piano
21:46and yeah i just started to make the lyrics as i went
21:53a lot of people don't know this too but there are also a lot of really talented homeless people
22:01they just don't have the funds or the means to be able to fully express it
22:07it almost feels as if i'm stranded and i can't see how i could have landed in a place where
22:16i know i don't belong
22:23people who say that you don't have ambition you don't have dreams we're not smart i just think
22:27they don't know too much about people and they've never talked to a homeless person in their life
22:46i've been here since january 27 of this year i love helping young adults because i was there where
23:01they at being homeless and all that chips sunflower seeds maybe one of them eating and they get to the
23:12bottom of the bag and they see this and they want to call
23:18outreach is that's how street work began right meeting young people where they are appreciate you
23:24so much the purpose of outreach is to go out into communities where young people may be like
23:32literally on the street to you know raise awareness to give information so let's see how long is that
23:39i tried and part of it takes a lot of research too and going into areas that are not
23:45the safest areas but they do it anyway and they really love what they do i'm trying to be like
23:52a representation to you like hey look at me i understand it's hard living in new york city you
23:58don't have parents or you don't have people that care for you but it's people that are doing this line
24:03of work that i actually can't turn right onto the robert f kennedy bridge ramp got you baby
24:10this is every day is on a fly we don't know if we're gonna come back you know you can have an
24:15accident so it's like you have to want this just like her you want to make a difference other than
24:20this is not for you this is not for you okay are you good my love
24:33how y'all doing we from safe horizon we work hello we work for safe horizon i know y'all was playing the
24:39game but we just trying to give a helping hand to people that may need it you know yeah i got i got a
24:45runaway friend you do please tell him to call point game let's go who's gonna win you got it oh
24:55good job good job yep did you hear the tall guy said he had a friend that was homeless oh yeah see
25:02yeah i didn't even hear that one or even one of them they could be going through a crisis at home and
25:06they can utilize our services so you never know keep spreading the word keep spreading the word
25:11we have to merge over so we need to get all the way over i've been in this field now for i want to
25:20say 26 years i have a son well i had a son he passed away last year june and um
25:33he struggled growing up he um he had a hard time i just feel that it wasn't enough
25:43help for him i felt like the places that i was sending him wasn't they didn't care
25:52and i got into this field because i wanted to make a difference i wanted to mother a child
25:59who is not mothered by their mother you know so everything that outreach does it makes a big
26:07difference it saves a life
26:14i would describe the team as just amazing our outreach team goes out six nights a week
26:22they operate between the hours of 7 p.m up until 3 a.m in the morning do you guys ever sleep no i sleep
26:31from three till six and then i get up and get ready for work yeah you seem like a very nice young man
26:41and you have smarts and you finish school there's a lot of opportunities out there for you but you have to
26:48go get them i think of street work as like a radical act of love in a city that can be unforgiving
26:56you haven't used in two days i'm so proud of you that means you can do this yeah and you look great
27:02thank you thank you appreciate that you're great
27:10can i get help yes thank you i appreciate you for the help and everything god bless you you
27:17you'll be good everything you're doing you know
27:18hey how you doing how you doing how you doing can you just have your ids out thank you
27:35if drop-in centers didn't exist i'll probably be dead right now straight up the point i'm making is
27:40this economy has failed us even me as an 18 year old know i'm saying like i'm young but i can see like
27:47very very very closely that this this economy is just it's not working for me i feel destroyed
27:54i feel like crumbled pieces not even you know like when you crack break a glass you gotta like
28:00hot glue it back together that's kind of how i feel like those tiny little cracks they're gone
28:07you're never gonna find them like they lost in a carpenter you already swept them up like
28:11i'm missing parts of me like i i feel like a lot of people struggle with the word homeless like
28:16they think of homeless and they think broke crackhead on 125th when i think of homeless i think of me
28:24hi come on in
28:27birds flying high you know how i feel
28:34i feel
28:44freedom drifting on by that's how i feel it's a new day it's a new dawn it's a new life for me
29:01it's a new life for me and i'm feeling good
29:10i'm done thank you thank you
29:19i've moved a few times since we last met so at first i was sleeping in the shelter i mentioned before
29:27where it was like on a chair but i was able to get a bed i will also say it was my birthday
29:35yay blessing and not a blessing um so i turned 22 each time i get a year older um i also lose services
29:47so it's also kind of like a race against like aging out of everything and trying to be as stable as i
29:57can be before that happens
30:1618 to 24 is a very vulnerable age there are very limited resources for that particular group and if
30:23there weren't programs like ours or uh programs that to that work specifically with runaway homeless
30:29youth who knows where these folks would would be welcome to the legacy of love kiki ball
30:39for as long as i've been at street work we've had a kiki ball and that's a space for young people to
30:44like show their talents and many of them have experienced some form of trauma and violence but but they
30:52but they've created this little community with each other that celebrates joy and pride and we want
30:58to honor the community where we want them to feel celebrated and loved and seen
31:03this is
31:10shout out to street works
31:11you've been available tonight shout out to street works
31:17What do you do?
31:19What do you have a good answer?
31:23What do you do?
31:25What do you do?
31:27What?
31:47I got my little certificate of completion.
32:11I felt relieved, I guess, felt relieved and a tiny bit proud.
32:16I feel like if I had housing, I would have been able to study a lot more.
32:30I feel like a lot of things can factor in because I will say there were some times where I also couldn't go to school because I couldn't pay to get there on the subway.
32:41So basically this means that I graduated with honors and I got over the average score.
32:48This is great. This is something that I can say that I did and an achievement that I have that not a lot of people can say that they have, especially in my position.
32:59But at the same time, this is not the end and it's not enough.
33:08Basically, I haven't been able to get any jobs. I don't know what to do. I've tried everything. I've interviewed before. I've had jobs for a really long time. I'm usually pretty good. I'm crying.
33:36Because my sister, she sent me money. That's why I'm crying. I was like, I'm hungry and I'm broke and I need a job. And I requested $10. And I was like, I just, I want food today. I want food.
33:59I usually will stay up at night like 2am sometimes to just like apply for jobs. I've applied for retail, a lot of retail operations, warehouse, customer service, front of house, beauty advisor.
34:21I've applied for a lot of fast food places, greeter, server, busser, three round interviews, two round interviews, group interviews, individual interviews, all these different types of interviews that for like very basic jobs that are very entry level jobs.
34:39I had to do two interviews with Trader Joe's, one with a assistant manager and one with the manager.
34:45It gets to a point where it's like, okay guys, it's almost been a year now and I still don't have a job.
34:52Hopefully this works out. I've heard Trader Joe's is such a good job and such a hard job to get into because it's so competitive because it's such a nice working environment.
35:07And they have really good food sometimes, really good snacks that are pretty cheap. So we'll see. Fingers crossed.
35:17I think that there's only so much a person in my situation can do. I am actively applying to jobs. I got my degree, everything that would have elevated me, I've done for myself.
35:32Right. But when it comes to housing, unless I can pull money out of thin air, I'm not really getting an apartment tomorrow.
35:39Why have this conversation? Why share your story?
35:44Um, how do I say this? I think that I, I do this to bring awareness, not only to like people who've never been through it before, but also people who are going through it currently.
35:58There's a lot of us. Homelessness doesn't really define me. I have many facets as a human, as a person, as an individual. There's more beyond that. But I think people really get stuck on that first part.
36:14There we go. Test. Test. Test. That they don't see anything else.
36:21Test. Test.
36:22Test. All of the other, manners and situation, too.
36:43I know how to find a tool.
37:02Here you go.
37:04Chicken.
37:06Chicken!
37:08I figured you wouldn't want me in the wrap.
37:10I can't wait but I can't wait to move out pretty much I want my own bathroom and I
37:33want my own toy kitchen and I and okay the toy kitchen we could probably do okay
37:40if you be good since becoming homeless as like 18 I seen how much it like impact me into my adult life
37:51I always feeling like the walls is caving in like I just can't get out of that closed space
37:58feeling like I'm being judged everywhere I go oh how can you consider yourself homelessness if you
38:05stay in a shelter that give you food people think of this as a luxury this is not luxury at all
38:14it's a mental strain it's a physical strain and that's why I'm just really trying to break out of
38:23it because my kids did not ask to like keep on having to switch from home to home being on the
38:30street and I'm tired to keep on having to find another way it has to end
38:34you ready to decorate I'm ready to decorate I already had everything in my mind planned
38:48made me an Amazon cart last year so I'm ready I'm just everything is manifesting
38:56I got it I got the job I got it I got it I got it I got it I got it $19 an hour because I'm just a
39:21little bit of experience but I got the job this has been like a year a year and a half
39:26me with no job look at that look at that oh my god yeah um and yeah I'm just happy I'm just so happy
39:36okay bye bye bye
39:37the good news that I got last week is that I started working at Trader Joe's my manager told
39:56me that about a couple thousand people applied to the specific position in this specific area
40:03and that only five of us was picked and I was one of the five it was exciting it feels like a relief
40:11but then at the same time at the end of the day I am still only a young adult minimum wage worker who
40:26financially supports herself as a person who's young and who's homeless I think the reason why it's
40:34happening so often so much right now is because no one can afford anything it's not just us our
40:43parents can't afford anything like people in my life are getting evicted they might be homeless soon
40:50people in their lives and unfortunately in terms of that we're at the very very bottom of that pyramid
40:57I usually only come like once every three months or so it's not expensive at all it's like $14 a session
41:05for an hour G major I do want my future have music involved but to like also give back to people who
41:16either have similar experiences as me or maybe they want to make music or they can't sit on money
41:21music has helped me so much I have more hope but at the same time it's hard to have hope
41:46I think people don't realize is that by supporting this group it is an investment in the future but
42:04right now our system is at a breaking point when a young person doesn't have resources access to
42:11things they resort to survival behavior to kind of make it through this is an issue that could be
42:18solved if we redirected or allocated the money or the funding because as it stands now it costs the
42:26city more money for shelters for hospital stays first responders responses that's just not working
42:34as opposed to just giving folks access to affordable housing
43:04right now in New York City our homeless crisis is as bad as it has ever been the number of families
43:13with children who are homeless is at a record high rents are at record highs you put those two
43:22together you see the reality of how hard it is for low-income families to find apartments that they can afford
43:34we need to build more housing writ large and we need to build more housing that have rents that are
43:42affordable to people who are exiting shelter
44:04there are some people that are just like me that had jobs had places and they fell on hard times it happens
44:21and that's what I'm trying to explain to most people
44:28people that are homeless they have futures they're more than what you perceive them to be
44:40we're human
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