Wrapping up our series on New York's hidden homeless, as commissioned by Time Out New York guest editor-in-chief Susan Sarandon, we spent a day with Far Rockaway, Queens native Danielle Stalluto. Along with her son and daughter, Danielle's family are part of 80 percent of more than 50,000 homeless New Yorkers in the city's shelter system that live with their spouses or children.
Danielle Stalluto, 27
Not that long ago, this Far Rockaway, Queens, native was content. Living in Florida, she was making money as a telemarketer and studying to become a massage therapist. After losing her job, she loaded her son and daughter (then three and one, respectively) into her car and headed back to the Rockaways.
As a single mom with steady work as a cashier (making $7.25 per hour), she received assistance for her three-bedroom apartment that came with a promise: After two years, she’d qualify for a government voucher, which she could use to move into affordable housing.
But that promise never materialized. Because of budget cuts, not only did Stalluto lose her shot at the voucher, she found herself on the verge of eviction due to financial woes.
Stalluto and her kids were then placed in the South Bronx’s Jackson Avenue Family Residence, 25 miles from her old neighborhood. The commute forced her to quit her job, and she’s very concerned for her kids’ safety. “I am on the third floor but you never know when a bullet can go through a window,” she says. “I’ve heard gunshots numerous times. I was walking to the store one afternoon with my kids and heard shots a block away. I could smell the smoke.”
Stalluto describes her room at the shelter as “half the size of a studio. There’s paint chipping, there’s mold, it has a lot of roaches and mice,” she says.
Still, she’s hopeful, having landed a job as a volunteer coordinator for the New York Coalition Against Hunger this summer. She even plans to enter Hostos Community College in the fall. “My son sometimes is like, ‘Mom when are we gonna get our own house?’ And I’m like, ‘When God allows it.’”
Read New York's Hidden Homeless: Part 2, Shameeka's story