Featured Stories
When the Streets Became Home: Why Homelessness Rose Dramatically in the 1980s
When the Towers Fell, the Safety Net Frayed: Poverty in New York City After 9/11
Why This History Matters
Poverty and homelessness have shaped New York City for generations. From crowded tenements to modern housing crises, these struggles remain part of the city’s story. Explore the people, policies, and events that defined this history.
Our Purpose
This blog explores the history of poverty and homelessness in New York City through historical research and analysis. We examine how housing challenges, economic inequality, and public policy have shaped the city over time. Our goal is to preserve these stories, provide historical context, and encourage a deeper understanding of issues that continue to impact New Yorkers today.
Latest Posts
When the Towers Fell, the Safety Net Frayed: Poverty in New York City After 9/11
On the morning of September 11, 2001, a man named Raymond Brown was sorting through a bin of donated clothes at a Coalition for the Homeless drop-in center on West...
When the Streets Became Home: Why Homelessness Rose Dramatically in the 1980s
The Morning of January 22, 1982. At 5:47 in the morning, a sanitation worker named Ruben Torres arrived for his shift along the southern edge of Central Park and found...
The History of Poverty and Homelessness in Nineteenth-Century New York City (1800–1900)
In 1850, on a single block in Manhattan’s Sixth Ward, more than three hundred people were packed onto a single acre of land — a population density that, with the possible exception of parts of London’s...
How the Progressive Era Changed Poverty and Homelessness in New York City
In 1890, a Danish immigrant turned police reporter named Jacob Riis calculated that more than 1.2 million people were crammed into Manhattan’s tenement houses—some blocks holding upward...