When Maria (not her real name) began her freshman year at Brooklyn College in 2019, she wasn’t living in a dorm room. She was living in a homeless shelter.
Housing insecurity has been Maria’s difficult reality since she immigrated to New York City with her family in 2015. After arriving from Grenada, they moved into an overcrowded, one-bedroom apartment with her uncle and aunt, and by 2017, the family was drifting in and out of shelters. Maria became estranged from her mother in 2020, and after that, “I was on my own,” she says. She entered Covenant House New York, a city youth shelter, and juggled her studies, classes, and a weekend restaurant job with a constant search for housing.
“I was just so stressed,” says Maria, now twenty-one. “I could only live in Covenant House for thirty days, so my housing was very, very temporary. Not having a home was difficult because I had to constantly move.”
Maria then learned about the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter (NCS), which assists New Yorkers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In October 2022, the organization created the NCS Scholars program to provide year-round stable housing and on-site support for City University of New York students. In its first year, the program served twenty-four students, including Maria, who now lives in a shared apartment in Long Island City and is set to graduate in May 2024 with a degree in business administration.
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