Help! Love, MOM

The unhoused, unsheltered and housing insecure live among us and yet we fail to see them.

Many have good memories of “home, sweet home.” Is your place neat and pinterest – beautiful for the holiday season?

Maybe, at your house, “the decor” is more cluttered and a little chaotic complete with the background hum of neighbors going about their lives?

Is your place peaceful? This is not the neighborhood you exactly thought you’d live in but is it your personal sanctuary.

It’s your home, where your favorite snacks in the fridge are always in danger of being snatched, and where unmatched, single socks cruise the bottom drawer for “sole” mates. (NY accent – “Get your shameless, corny joke here!”)

Or, if you don’t yet own a home, you have the ability to comfortably rent an apartment.

A legal apartment that is.

Legal Apts in NYC

This apartment has windows letting in sights, sounds, and sunshine and breezes — super important in our increasingly boiling hot summer days.

It’s an apartment that doesn’t flood in a downpour.

One Flooded Basement Story

In the late summer of 2021 the New York City area experienced what weather forecasters called the “remnants” of Hurricane Ida.

Powerful remnants! They produced flooding, and, sadly also deaths, throughout New York including in basement apartments.

Mr. Alba tells his story of almost drowning in his basement apartment if not for his cat waking him up during the storm.

One of the most heart wrenching things about his experience is that Alba was stable — he lived with an affordable rent for 5 years prior to that devastating storm — in an apartment he could manage without roommates.

Mr. Alba lost everything, at the time of the original story, Alba was, again, living with roommates.

More than a roof, a door and a floor

Sure. An apartment is HOME. However, more than that–

An apartment or house is also your stepping stone to the middle class.

You can focus on upward mobility – a degree, learning a trade, building a business, finding a better place to live – when you know where you will sleep tonight and the next and the one after that.

An apartment or house is also a strong predictor of your health outcomes.

You can better attend doctor’s appointments, follow a doctor’s instructions, engage in healthier living habits and the like when your basic need of adequate housing is consistently met.

An apartment or house is also a robust measure of your mental health. Consider this pernicious intersectionality:

~One could argue that the homeless tend to have high rates of mental illness. However,

~One could also argue that the mentally ill have higher rates of homelessness.

When you have your own place with an affordable rent, no couch surfing for you.

You receive proper heat during the cold days and nights of the fall and winter.

Most of all, you have A KEY to that apartment, giving you access to come and go as you please.

You don’t live on pins and needles waiting and wondering when you may get evicted, asked to leave, locked out, left alone. I’ve been there – it’s a scary, precarious place to be.

You also don’t wonder and worry about the ability to consistently pay the rent. Affordability is a real issue; this is especially true in an expensive city like New York City.

Rents in NYC are just too high for a significant number of us. And, that’s only when apartment seekers can find a legal, available, suitable, safe, affordable apartment.

“We can’t exist as a city with a 1.4% vacancy rate … It is uniform across the city, no matter where we go — all of us, all elected officials in this state, we’re hearing the same thing — affordability, housing, housing, housing.”

Eric Adams, Mayor, New York City regarding the new City of Yes housing initiative to create housing especially for lower income residents – The City

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness people who identify as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, Asian or ‘Some Other Race’ are more greatly impacted.

Finally, this Emmy Award nominated video on New York City homelessness came up in my feed recently and inspired this post. In its opening, the documentarians state that current rate of homelessness in New York City is at Depression era levels. 


Based on the unsheltered persons I see as I journey around the City, I believe it.

Let's "see" the unsheltered homeless all around us. 
Let's support legislation that will increase new housing construction. 

Let's give to organizations with a history of compassionate and effective advocacy for the homeless.

Let's be kind to the homeless and support them directly with donations if you are able.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.   And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:29-31 KJV

New York is ALLLL about money and we always want more. 

Our unsheltered brothers and sisters are more, more valuable, that is.  They are worth more than the most delicious celebrity-chef cooked meal, more than a pair of Wicked tickets. 

The homeless are worth more of our time and attention. The homeless are worth more.

I'm Thankful for all of You.
Blessings at Thanksgiving and Always


xoxoKimberly


--If you know housing insecure women in New York City, WIN, Women in Need or Care for the Homeless may be helpful.

–If you know housing insecure youth in New York City, Covenant House or The Door may be helpful.

–If you know ANYONE who is housing insecure in New York City, The Bowery Mission may be helpful.