A Day in the Life

Read the full article by Sarah Secunda

Franceska Dillella is a working mother with three kids: six-year-old Zach, four-year-old Nick and two-year-old Eden. For eight months, she struggled to keep her family together while contending with the city’s homeless shelter system. Here is an example of a typical day:

6:00a.m.
At the Stockholm Family Residence in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Franceska wakes up the kids, gets them dressed and fixes breakfast.

7:30a.m.
Franceska and her children head out the door to catch the M train from Central Avenue to Essex Street, where they switch to the F train. They take the F train one stop to Second Avenue and transfer to the V train. The family disembarks at the Steinway Street station in Astoria, Queens, and walks to Zach’s elementary school.

8:30a.m.
The school day starts. Zach is often late for first grade because of the long commute, which can take up to two hours.

9:00a.m.
After dropping off Zach, Franceska takes Nick to his pre-kindergarten school nearby, which also provides day care for Eden.

9:30a.m.
Franceska gets on the N train to travel to her job in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

10:00a.m.-4:30p.m.
Franceska works, but often has to attend mandatory meetings at the office of the Human Resources Adminstration located in Sunnyside, Queens, where she has waited up to four hours to meet with a case worker.

4:30p.m.
Franceska heads back to Astoria to pick up the kids, who get out of after-school day care at 5:30 p.m. The family then makes the long commute back to the shelter.

7:00p.m.-8:00p.m.
The family eats dinner. Franceska helps Zach with his homework.

8:00p.m.
Franceska often goes to a friend's house to use the internet for her job. The shelter has no computer and the public library closes at 6 p.m.

10:00p.m.-11:00p.m.
The family must check into the shelter before its 11 p.m. curfew. Franceska puts the kids to bed.

TEXT: SARAH SECUNDA
PHOTOS: JOEL COOK (except where noted)

To change the slideshow speed, mouseover the slideshow and use the +/- buttons to increase/decrease the delay between images.