The Sleep District, where everyone can afford the rent

sleeping5 — A resident of the Sleep District in McCarren Park

In the warmer months, you can see New Yorkers sleeping outside: office drones stealing an hour from cubicles, street people slumbering through a hot afternoon, lovers clasping each other in a sweaty, tender embrace. Sleeping in public is one of the rare pleasures that remains literally priceless, one of the last free rides in an increasingly expensive city. It’s a tenuous, temporary real-estate deal affordable by anyone who can claim a spot of grass. This silent, somnolent democracy is the Sleep District, where citizenship is open to all, and whose entry fee is lower than a MetroCard. Walt Whitman said, “I swear they are all beautiful/Every one that sleeps is beautiful,” and I agree: Here are some photographs investigating the residents of the Sleep District.