Sleeping Behind The Bronx Zoo: Why Some New Yorkers Choose Streets Over Shelters

Anthony Lewis, 62, hunkered down in a tattered blue canvas camping chair on the sidewalk across from the Chrysler Building as a frigid wind raced down 42nd Street.

He’d just been given a pair of gloves by a kind passerby. But the parka he wore and the thin beige blanket wrapped around him couldn’t keep Friday’s early spring cold from chilling his bones.

“Seven months I’m out here,” Lewis said. “It’s crazy. It’s hard.”