Depending on the audience, Dasani’s parents are either “working the system” or “making ends meet.” Either way, they are living in a city where no poor family with eight children, supported by parents lacking college degrees, could easily get by. New York, it often strikes Chanel, has no place for the poor. Her family survives because they live rent-free, in a shelter, and have access to three meals a day. “How can I pull up any straps with no boots?” she says.
