Doubling-Up and New York City’s Policies for Sheltering Homeless Families

This chapter documents the search for the stable housing that families in New York City need to keep together, attend school, and work. The author states that the city government assumes that the housing standard for very-low-income families should be lower than that for other families and that poor families should opt for living doubled-up, no matter how crowded, rather than using the public shelter system. The author's recommendations include increasing rent subsidies for low-income families, the construction of more subsidized low-income housing, and the U.S. government's support of the United Naitons' effort to recognize housing as a universal basic human right (author).