From Shelter to Apartment

  • Made By CUP With:
  • Community Partners
  • Tags:
  • Housing

This guide helps people living in New York City's homeless shelters understand their rights and the different programs available to help them leave shelter and find affordable permanent housing.

Members from the Safety Net Activists giving feedback on a design draft.

Over a hundred thousand individuals and children find themselves in the New York City shelter system every year. In addition to the stress and emotional toll that’s caused by homelessness, these individuals must also navigate the daily challenges and requirements of shelter living and are often vulnerable to unjust treatment from shelter staff and unsuitable living conditions.

Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center collaborated with CUP and design studio 13 milliseconds to make sure that shelter residents know their rights and different permanent housing options.

The foldout poster breaks down people’s rights in homeless shelters and the different programs available to help them leave shelter and find affordable permanent housing. It also provides resources on other services shelter residents may have access to, like transportation benefits and storage grants, and what to do when your rights have been violated.

With this information, people living in shelters will be able to assert their rights and start to find permanent affordable housing. Safety Net Project staff, volunteers, and CUP staff launched From Shelter to Apartment with a day of outreach where the guide was distributed at food pantries, libraries, and shelters throughout New York City. The Safety Net Project continues to distribute the poster at different shelters through their Safety Net Activists (a group of members who are currently or formerly living in shelter) and their network of partner organizations who are also working with homeless New Yorkers, and at their weekly legal clinics.

CUP and the Safety Net Project worked together in 2020 to adapt this project into Spanish.

Members from the Safety Net Activists giving feedback on a design draft.
The project team discussing early design directions.

Check out the Project

The cover and poster from From Shelter to Apartment.

Project Update

This project was updated in summer 2024 to reflect policy changes on involuntary transfers and update contact information.

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Project Collaborators

Community Partner

The Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center

Kiana Davis
Phroska McAlister
Helen Strom
and with special thanks to Wendy O’Shields

Designer

13 milliseconds
Sharon Bach
Francois Huyghe



Special Thanks

Elijah Bobo, Miranda Grundy, Frampton Tolbert, Craig Hughes, Ina Klein, Adriana Mendoza, Carlos Rivera, Rose, Safety Net Activists, Siyona Ravi, Sada Spence, Jonathan Sunshine, Leigh Taylor

Product Details

8″ × 11″ color pamphlet; unfolds to 22″ × 32″ poster

Funding Support

Support for this project was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

General support for CUP’s programs is provided in part by The Kresge Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, New York Foundation, Surdna Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.