The High Cost of Getting to Work

Let me tell you about Carlos.

He'd just landed a dishwashing job in Midtown. The hours weren't glamorous, but he was grateful for the opportunity. The challenge? Carlos was living in the Bronx, and the only way to keep that job was an hour-long subway commute—at a cost of $127 a month for a MetroCard. That was more than a third of his first paycheck. And with fares set to rise again next year, that burden is only going to grow heavier.

This isn't an isolated story. In his book There Is No Place for Us, journalist Brian Goldstone tells of a woman who worked back-to-back shifts just to keep up. Exhausted, she fell asleep at the wheel on her way home and wrecked her car. Without money to pay for repairs, keep gas in the tank, or maintain insurance, that single accident unraveled everything. One crash—brought on by the sheer grind of overwork—pushed her from barely making ends meet into homelessness.

Transportation is rarely factored into conversations about homelessness, but it matters deeply. Without reliable access to work, keeping a job becomes almost impossible. And without a job, escaping homelessness is even harder.

At City Relief, we see this dynamic every week. Neighbors ask us for MetroCards not because they want a free ride, but because a missed train can mean a missed shift, and a missed shift can mean the end of the fragile balance they've managed to hold together.

This is why we must reject the lie that people experiencing homelessness are "lazy." The truth is far more sobering because they are often working themselves to exhaustion. And even then, one unexpected obstacle, like a car accident or the cost of a MetroCard, can tip everything into crisis.

Compassion begins with recognizing how thin that line really is, and how many of our neighbors are walking it every single day.

With gratitude,

Josiah Haken

City Relief, CEO