Dakota Skye, 10, and Ethan, 9, walk down the hotel hallway to buy some candy from the vending machine in the lobby on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now. Goode said she is apprehensive about her children playing outside for safety reasons, so a lot of their time is spent inside the hotel on the weekends. When they can, they like to take trips to Wal-mart and the animal shelter on the weekends. (Erica Lee for The New York Times, “A Homeless Family Navigates Life Warped by the Coronavirus”)
April Goode, 39, cooks hamburgers for lunch on a portable skillet for her children in a hotel room as they relax on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now. “When you have this many people, especially kids in this space, it breeds stress,” Goode said of their situation.
April Goode, 39, finds ingredients to make a hamburger lunch for her children from the hotel refrigerator on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Without a car, Goode has to take a Lyft to go to the grocery store. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now.
April Goode chops shallots on a styrofoam plate while cooking hamburgers for lunch in a hotel room with her children on Saturday, March 7, 2020.
April Goode, 39, looks through her belongings for ingredients to cook hamburgers in a hotel with her four children on Saturday, March 7, 2020.
Ethan, 9, relaxes while playing a game on a laptop while his older sisters Miriah, 12, and Jazmyn, 14, also pass time on their phones on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now. April Goode said she is apprehensive about her children playing outside for safety reasons, so a lot of their time is spent inside the hotel on the weekends. When they can, they like to take trips to Wal-mart and the animal shelter on the weekends.
In efforts to make the hotel room space feel more like a home, April Goode purchased small plants to place in the window sill in the one window of their room. The window can’t open. Small bottles of hand sanitizer are also wedged in between the plants.
April Goode eats her lunch on the hotel bed as she talks to her oldest daughter Jazmyn, 14, on Saturday, March 7, 2020.
April Goode displays her son’s graded spelling tests on the hotel room furniture.
Jazmyn, 14, sits in her own space while using her phone in the corner of the hotel room with her other family members relax not far from her.
April Goode saved two fortune cookie slips as encouragement for herself and keeps them on the night stand next to their beds.
Ethan, 9, watches his mom April Goode wash the skillet in the hotel bathroom sink on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now. “We have everything we need in this room - food, clothing…but we don’t have affordable housing,” Goode said.
April Goode, 39, sits for a portrait with her children, including (from left) Ethan, 9, Dakota Skye, 10, Jazmyn, 14, and Miriah, 12. Goode and her children have been living at the Quality Inn in Ledgewood, New Jersey for a month now.
Dakota Skye, 10, turns a corner to buy some candy with her brother Ethan from the vending machine at the Quality Inn hotel.
Living at the Quality Inn