Last weekend, in Manhattan, I stopped briefly to check my messages when I exited the subway. So I was stationary, focused on my phone, when a woman approached me. She asked me if I had a room to rent, or a space for a cot, and said "I'll pay two thousand!" It was a moment of cognitive dissonance for me, as if she were asking for money and asserting that she had money, at the same time. She spoke with urgency and a note of desperation, and kept repeating "I'll pay two thousand!" I told her I didn't have anything, but the encounter troubled me. Was she for real, or an investigative journalist, or a scam artist? Did she really expect a stranger in NYC to put her up? If she was for real, what predicament led her to this situation, where she has $2,000 to spend on rent, but no leads on a place to live? I didn't even know where to refer her, and I'm still not sure what I should have done. I can only hope that she has found whatever accommodations and services she needs.
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