The Garden Inn and Suites near Kennedy International Airport looks like any other cookie-cutter airport hotel. The lobby floors are a creamy marble, the hallway carpets worn. A black-and-gold sign near an elevator directs visitors to meeting rooms with names like the Regent, the Wellington and the Kensington. Then you notice that there are no children around, and hardly any women. The hotel is used as a men’s shelter, the city having run out of space in its shelter system. Hotels are not set up for this purpose; they are often far from a subway, and basic shelter services like laundry are lacking. One roommate at the Garden stole Mr. Roberson-Charles’s laptop, he said, and another took things from his pockets. The pickpocket claimed to have killed someone. Mr. Roberson-Charles did not press the issue. He stayed there about a year, during which time he got a job doing phone surveys. He hated it. He was berated and hung up on, but it was work. He kept applying for other jobs. No one even called him back. He realized then that he needed college credentials, and LaGuardia was right across the street from the survey company. He enrolled for the fall semester.