She’s 14 and she’s moved 26 times. The US housing crisis has families like hers ‘running in place’

Na’Kaya Godfrey cradles her toddler sister, Kylie, in the family’s latest, but temporary, home, as brother Junior looks on. The teen spends time playing with the baby and makeup, but the constant moving has made her anxious so that she stays awake at night without eating until her mother comes home. Photograph: Brigid Schulte

At the end of a long day at school, 14-year-old Na’Kaya Godfrey, and her 12-year-old brother, Junior, returned home to a dark, empty house in Stone Mountain, Georgia, outside Atlanta.

On this dreary winter afternoon, she turned on the space heaters that provide the only warmth in the unheated house, the latest in a long succession of homes the family has occupied during her short life. An inspirational sign on her dresser read “Home, Sweet Home”. But it doesn’t mean much to her. Asked how many places her family has lived, Na’Kaya guessed: “At least 25.”