New York City’s homeless population has grown by a third in recent years — from about forty thousand in 2012 to over sixty thousand today. Alongside this increase, a rising number of homeless individuals reject the dehumanizing conditions of the shelter system, living instead on the city’s streets and in its public spaces.

The city’s response has been aggressive.

Police throw homeless peoples’ possessions in the trash. A thirty-eight-member special unit polices the homeless population that resides along 125th Street in Harlem.