If the closest thing to hell in Bushwick is a visit to the post office, then the opposite is true about local shipping center Sent.
Behind the counter, Debbie Perez has spent years greeting customers by name, remembering their addresses, and transforming mundane shipping errands into meaningful human connections. But for the past few weeks, after being evicted from her apartment, Debbie has been experiencing the store in a completely different way: as her bedroom.
“I’ve actually been sleeping and living here,” Debbie says, pointing to the spot where customers usually queue up during business hours. “You’re standing in the middle of my bedroom at nighttime.”
Each evening, after helping the last customer, Debbie and her son Michael unfold a cot and a mattress among the shipping packages on the concrete floor of Sent. The shipping labels, scales, and package bins that define her workday surround her makeshift sleeping quarters. Despite facing housing insecurity, Debbie continues showing up for her community, unwilling to leave her boss and customers during the busy Jewish holiday shipping season.
Debbie’s situation reflects a larger crisis affecting New York’s workforce. While the Coalition for the Homeless reports over 120,000 individuals sleeping in NYC shelters each night, what’s less visible is that approximately one-third of families in these shelters have at least one employed adult. These are not people struggling with addiction or mental illness, but essential workers—taxi drivers, healthcare workers, city employees, and service staff—who earn salaries ($40,000-$50,000 in some cases) that simply cannot match NYC’s housing costs. …