Homeless Girl Scouts Form Troop in New York City

In the city of New York, where high rents make even some fully employed people turn to shelters, a Girl Scout troop has formed in a homeless shelter. "The new troop is among a number of programs begun by the city to meet the needs of children, who make up nearly 40 percent of the roughly 60,000 people in the city’s primary shelter system," Nikita Stewart reports for the New York Times.

Giselle Burgess who started and leads troop 6000 is homeless herself and wanted her daughters to have the opportunity to be Girl Scouts. "As Mayor Bill de Blasio and his administration grapple with a crisis of homelessness, the city has placed about 7,500 people in commercial hotels," Stewart writes. Of those in shelters and hotels roughly 40 percent are children.