Inside the shelters and tunnels of New York’s homelessness crisis

A new book lays bare the realities of US homelessness, arguing it stems from decades of economic change, shrinking public investment and rising inequality. 

Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age, by New York City housing advocate Patrick Markee, draws on more than 20 years of work with homeless individuals and housing activists nationwide. 

The book offers what it describes as an ‘alternative and innovative, wide-angle view’ of homelessness, combining historical analysis with recent policy research and first-hand reporting. 

Markee’s account focuses heavily on New York City, where an estimated 100,000 people rely on the city’s shelter system each night – an initiative run by the Department of Homeless Services and provides temporary and emergency accommodation.

Within the novel, which is due to be published on 4th December 2025, Markee traces a ‘geography of homelessness’ through locations he argues illustrate the scale and nature of the crisis. These include armories originally built to hold militias deployed against worker uprisings, a train tunnel beneath Riverside Park and a family intake centre ‘where infants, children and families were forced to sleep on office floors.’

Although the book is not yet available to the public, early previews have praised its combination of direct experience and historical analysis. 

Kim Hopper, author of Reckoning with Homelessness, writes: ‘[Markee] takes readers through a story they thought they knew, reconstructing the past with an eye towards place, time, issue and reportage and counterpoint…His is an advocate’s stance, and the scares sometimes show. But so does the intelligence, grit, heart and soul it takes to do this work.’

Jonathan Mulligan Sepulveda, author of No Human Is Illegal, echos a similar tone. He said the book is as ‘Nuanced, compassionate and meticulously  researched…policy from the perspective of the streets, tunnels, jails and darkness.

‘Markee gives a fascinating history lesson and offers concrete hope.’  

Photo: Nik Shuliahin/UnSplash

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