The Sunday Read: 'The Children in the Shadows'

<p>Prince is 9 years old, ebullient and bright; he has spent much of the pandemic navigating the Google Classroom app from his mother’s phone.</p><p>The uncertainty and isolation of the coronavirus lockdown is not new to him — he is one of New York City’s more than 100,000 homeless schoolchildren, the largest demographic within the homeless population.</p><p>Families like Prince’s are largely invisible.</p><p>Samantha M. Shapiro, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, has spent the last two years speaking with over a dozen homeless families with children of school age. On this week’s The Sunday Read, she explores what their lives are like.</p><p><em>This story was written by Samantha M. Shapiro and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, </em><a href="https://www.audm.com/?utm_source=nytmag&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=children_in_the_shadows" target="_blank"><em>download Audm for iPhone or Android.</em></a></p>