Slipping out from her covers, Dasani goes to the window. And for most of us, I would say, family is so important. By the time Dasani came into the world, on 26 May 2001, the old Brooklyn was vanishing. The turtle they had snuck into the shelter. They have learned to sleep through anything. And it really was for that clientele, I believe. She was 11 years old. Family was everything for them. Delivery charges may apply, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. Hershey likes to say that it wants to be the opposite of a legacy school, that if your kids qualify, that means that the school hasn't done its job, 'cause its whole purpose is to lift children out of poverty. Dasani tells herself that brand names dont matter. And just exposure to diversity is great for anyone. They did go through plenty of cycles of trying to fix themselves. They loved this pen and they would grab it from me (LAUGH) and they would use it as a microphone and pretend, you know, she was on the news. It happens because there's a lot of thought and even theory, I think, put into the practice. And so you can get braces. Best to try to blend in while not caring when you dont. She had a drug (INAUDIBLE). So I'm really hoping that that changes. And the Big Apple gets a new mayor, did get a new mayor this weekend. And there's so much to say about it. It is on the fourth floor of that shelter, at a window facing north, that Dasani now sits looking out. And what was happening in New York was that we were reaching a kind of new level. We suffocate them with the salt!. I had been there for a while. Chris Hayes: Yeah. And this ultimately wound up in the children being removed in October of 2015, about ten months into Dasani's time at Hershey. Well, by the way, that really gets in the way of getting a job. Chanel. On mornings like this, she can see all the way past Brooklyn, over the rooftops and the projects and the shimmering East River. So I think that is what's so interesting is you rightly point out that we are in this fractured country now. She had seven siblings. And there's some poverty reporting where, like, it feels, you know, a little gross or it feels a little, like, you know, alien gaze-y (LAUGH) for lack of a better word. Back then, from the ghettos isolated corners, a perfume ad seemed like the portal to a better place. Her mother had grown up in a very different time. Dasani feels her way across the room that she calls the house a 520 sq ft space containing her family and all their possessions. I mean, this was a kid who had been, sort of, suddenly catapulted on to the front page of The New York Times for five days. How you get out isn't the point. They were in drug treatment programs for most of the time that I was with them, mostly just trying to stay sober and often succeeding at it. The mice used to terrorise Dasani, leaving pellets and bite marks. Dasani described the familys living quarters as so cramped, it was like 10 people trying to breathe in the same room and they only give you five windows, Elliott recalls. The smaller children lie tangled under coats and wool blankets, their chests rising and falling in the dark. Poverty Isnt the Problem | American Enterprise Institute Why Is This Happening? is presented by MSNBC and NBC News, produced by Doni Holloway and features music by Eddie Cooper. And about 2,000 kids go there. The book takes on poverty, homelessness, racism, addiction, hunger, and more as they shape the lives of one remarkable girl and her family. This family is a proud family. And talk a little bit about just her routine, her school life. The material reality of Dasani's life her homelessness, her family's lack of money is merely the point of departure for understanding her human condition, she says. She could even tell the difference between a cry for hunger and a cry for sleep. Whether they are riding the bus, switching trains, climbing steps or jumping puddles, they always move as one. But you have to understand that in so doing, you carry a great amount of responsibility to, I think, first and foremost, second guess yourself constantly. And a lot of things then happen after that. She doesn't want to get out. But nothing like this. She wanted to create this fortress, in a way. It was in Brooklyn that Chanel was also named after a fancy-sounding bottle, spotted in a magazine in 1978. This is freighted by other forces beyond her control hunger, violence, unstable parenting, homelessness, drug addiction, pollution, segregated schools.