Homelessness at Home

Abstract

Janet Denny is a 62-year old homeless woman who lives in College Point Queens. Denny grew up in College Point and lived with her grandmother. When her grandmother passed away, she left the house to Denny and she could have lived there rent free for the rest of her life. However, the house was sold by the estate executor without Denny's knowledge and she ended up on the street. Nomadic by nature, she wandered around Queens for years, setting up "shop" and in 2017, she was living in a makeshift hut near Fort Totten park in Bayside, a boarding town of the one she grew up in. Local Bayside activist and media personality Gregg P Sullivan, through one of the facebook pages he ran, found out she was living down there and decided to pay her a visit. After that visit, he decided to help her out by getting her into the shelter system and giving her small jobs with his media company. The two developed a friendship, but his friendship wasn't enough to keep her off the street. Expert on homelessness social worker Larry Grubler weighs in about why there are so many individuals like Janet in New York City, and what needs to be done to help get people off of the street.