Voices Without Roofs seeks to answer the question, “how might we help street homeless New Yorkers move into housing?” After extensive interviews with unsheltered homeless New Yorkers frontline outreach workers, we identified three key trends. First, folks experiencing homelessness were generally unaware of what steps they needed to take to move inside. Second, outreach teams struggled to find a balance between communicating next steps and making false promises. Lastly, people who successfully navigated the system now have more limited contact with their friends who remain on the streets, so their knowledge is rarely transferred back down. After identifying information gaps within the system, we decided that we wanted to build some sort of pamphlet or zine that shares information, both emotionally and tactically supportive, from formerly homeless people to currently homeless people. In this way, we believe we will be able to provide unsheltered homeless New Yorkers with information they need to begin navigating the remarkably bureaucratic system in New York.
