At first glance, Suleiman Rifai’s small, nondescript office at a Brooklyn men’s homeless shelter may not seem like much. But to Rifai, a social worker who is visually impaired, it holds the same significance as any space at United Nations headquarters.
“This is the stop that everyone makes once they are here,” said Rifai, who has helped the homeless for over 20 years. “It’s really like the U.N. All different kinds of people walk in here and tell me all their different stories.”
Rifai, who works at the Samaritan Daytop Village Forbell Men’s Shelter in East New York, provides counseling and daily guidance to homeless men, helping clients navigate through their trauma and mental health challenges. He says his experience of becoming blind at age 11 in his native Tanzania helps make him even more empathetic to the hundreds of homeless clients he’s encountered.
“Nobody woke up in the morning and grew up and said, ‘One day I'm going to be in the shelter system,’” he told BK Reader. “Things are formed from the foundation of where you're born, how you're raised, and what happened.”
The homeless crisis in New York City seems unrelenting. In recent years, homelessness in the city reached the highest level since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In February 2026, over 100,000 people slept each night in shelters, according to the nonprofit Coalition For The Homeless.
For Rifai, the key to getting clients to open up is to simply ask: what is your story?
“Because for most people, nobody has ever asked them that,” he said. “I'm not distracted by his appearance, how he's dressed. I just listen to the person's story, words, and I really feel the internal person, not the other external distractions. And everyone has a story.”
During his hour-plus commute from his home in Washington Heights to the shelter, Rifai often thinks about why some New Yorkers remain unsheltered. Policies that treat the homeless like criminals should be abolished, he said. The city and state should add a lot more supportive housing that is easily attainable. And housing vouchers should last more than five years, he added.
Suleiman starts his day at the shelter at 7:00am each day. Once he arrives, he checks in with the night staff to find out what happened overnight. Then he uses a screen reader, or an assisted device called JAWS, to read emails and incident reports. He writes his own notes in braille and meets with clients until 3:00pm.
He says most men who stop by his office are ready to open up about something, whether it's a criticism of the long wait for housing or other things on their mind. He emphasizes his office as a safe space, a room to unload.
“The ultimate goal is to make everyone feel comfortable,” he said. “I tell them to be themselves, there is no judgment, and that there’s only compassion here.”
After a moment, Suleiman added: “Many men have shed tears here.”
To sustain his own health, Suleiman runs. His interest in the sport started when someone from Achilles International, a nonprofit organization that provides athletic services for disabled people, approached him to ask him if he wanted to join a track club.
He often laces his running shoes at the end of the workday and meets friends in Central Park before heading home. An avid marathon runner, he recently completed the Paris Marathon in six hours. (His PR is 3:43:39 at the Boston Marathon).
He often asks his marathon guides to describe the scene while running, but he can feel the vibe of the crowd himself.
"Paris has a reserved energy, while New York is rowdy,” he said.
Tapping into attributes that helps him run long distances, Suleiman has an unyielding well of dedication, patience and perseverance to help the homeless find focus in their sometimes chaotic lives. He says his own self worth came from staff at the Lighthouse Guild, an organization that provides vision care, rehabilitation, and support services for people who are blind or visually impaired. Every tool he was taught there made him feel stronger, he said. Eventually he went to college and gained his master’s degree from Adelphi University.
His dedication to his work is exceptional. Despite falling onto the subway tracks several years ago, Suleiman went to work several days after the ordeal.
“I wanted to be an example for my clients, that you can face a challenge but can overcome it,” he said.
And at age 65, he has no plans on quitting running or helping the unhoused.
“Every day is different. You don't know what you expect. You meet people. Things happen. Fights. EMS comes. It's good and not good, but it just keeps you on your toes,” he said.
