After Homelessness and Jail, a Harlem Woman Finds Stability Working Construction

One of the worst things about being homeless was getting caught in the rain.

Milan Chapman, 22, who was sometimes drenched for weeks at a time, said of her time on the street, “Just wet, always wet.”

To numb herself from the elements and from her own gloomy mood, Ms. Chapman once relied on alcohol and drugs, she said.

“I was doing anything,” she said. “I was basically a junk box.”