An Open Letter to NYC Housing Insecurity

A poetic response to a New York City survey where many of the city's residents expressed a demand for affordable housing and reduction of homelessness.

Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Largest-known NYC survey finds affordable housing, reducing homelessness seen as keys to public safety…Officials said that 62,000 respondents offered their opinions on a range of issues from public safety and infrastructure to education and racial equity. In one of the more revealing findings, adults who were asked to pick three public safety priorities chose affordable housing and reducing homelessness most often. via Gothamist

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dear concrete jungle,

jigsawed blocks of pavement connecting property and promise
isle of cloud-high buildings and sirens and endless foot traffic
your streets have functioned as a hostile hostel
for generations of dreamers who came by way of
trains, planes and automobiles in search of
new beginnings
you, open invitation for eight million, have always
had the hardest time turning anyone away
and so, your best accommodations have often been
granite and asphalt to whoever could find
enough square footage to nest in Newness

we, your visitors, can always identify
the houseless among you beyond their cardboard
doubling as a cry for help and bed linen
or the way their pleas for help
always seem to be in sync with
the rattle of change in plastic cups and
metro lines barreling through railways