C. J. and Tiffany Dillinger cut a tender image in the midst of hard circumstance early on Thursday as they spooned together on Broadway on a bed made from pedestrian plaza chairs that they had dressed with a foam mat, sheets and pillows, cocooned in corrugated cardboard.

They were shaken awake just before 7 a.m. by a security guard for the Gramercy District Alliance. As they stuffed their pillows and blankets into a ratty rolling suitcase, they said they had been homeless since their house in Old Bridge, N.J., was foreclosed on a year ago.

They had fallen behind on their mortgage. Then they were both laid off. She had a shipping and receiving position. He was a construction worker.

"We're trying to get some housing," Ms. Dillinger said. "I don't want to be separated from him."

They married 16 years ago, and homelessness is the hardest challenge they have faced, Ms. Dillinger said. They started taking public transportation into New York City in July because they heard it was a more manageable place to be homeless.

"Believe it or not, there's more resources here," Ms. Dillinger said. "Soup kitchens, places to eat. We came because we heard about a couples' shelter."

When they tried to get into the couples' shelter, however, they were denied. But Ms. Dillinger said, "I'd rather be out here than in shelters."

As Mr. Dillinger turned the walls from their previous night's room back into flattened cardboard and dropped it beside a curbside trash can, Ms. Dillinger's eyes misted.

"There's more resources for survival here," she said. "But I wouldn't call it living."