The Hidden Victims of New York's Worsening Housing Crisis

New York Times

26-07-2025

At night, the Brooklyn apartment where Kimberly Diaz, 25, was trying to raise her two small daughters was a minefield of clothing, toys and fitfully sleeping bodies.
In one bedroom were her twin brother, youngest brother and godfather, while her brother-in-law and his sons slept in the second bedroom. She shared a twin bed in another room with her two girls, and her sister and her five children piled onto air mattresses at their feet.
That meant nine people, ranging from 2 to 26 years old, lived in her bedroom alone.
'It was chaos,' Ms. Diaz said from the Brooklyn homeless shelter she fled to three months ago with her daughters, ages 2 and 3. 'I had a lot of anxiety; I had panic attacks. We were a can of sardines.'
'My babies need more than just a bed,' she added. 'They need freedom.'
Congested streets, packed subway cars, overflowing sidewalks — New York is a city of crowds. But in its poorest corners, home can be a similar crush: Apartments in New York City are among the country's most overcrowded — frequently defined as having more than two people per bedroom. Eight percent of households citywide are overcrowded, but the figure balloons to 27 percent for families who have at least one child and less than $100,000 in income, according to data from the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
This is far from the trope of, say, a gaggle of 20-something interns camping out in a West Village studio for a summer. The reality of overcrowding in New York City for most is stark: Nearly 40 percent of single adults and 20 percent of families with children cited overcrowding, discord or unlivable conditions as the reason they sought refuge in city-run shelters, according to a study by the Coalition for the Homeless.
And these numbers stand to grow, as the vacancy rate in the city plummets toward an all-time low, and the cost of living races ever upward.
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