Shakira's Got $1,500 in Rent Vouchers, But Landlords Won't Take Them

Shakira Crawford is a mother of three and works full-time at a Manhattan hotel. She's also the subject of WNYC's "A Long Way Home" series on homelessness in NYC.

New York City is home to the nation’s largest homeless population. Mayor DeBlasio came into office last year promising to greatly reduce that number and introduced a new voucher program to help pay for rent.

Mirela Iverac, reporter for WNYC, where she covers poverty and immigration, talks about her series which follows working single mother Shakira Crawford and her children as they try to navigate their way through that program and into a home of their own.

→ Hear more: You can listen to the rest of WNYC's series "The Long Way Home," which follows one family as it negotiates its way through New York City’s multi-million dollar anti-homelessness program.