Background: In New York City (NYC) sleep related infant injuries are a leading cause of infant mortality and thought to be preventable by altering the infant sleep environment. Most interventions focus on changing practices that place infants at higher risk for these types of deaths (e.g., bed-sharing, prone sleep positioning, and excess bedding), an approach that has been criticized as overly broad. Little research has been devoted to the overarching context of these practices, including how factors related to poverty affect everyday choices around the infant’s sleep environment. This study examined how the Social Ecological Model of infant sleep in which multiple levels of factors, from individual-level beliefs and cultural attitudes to structural factors related to living conditions, may influence the sleep environment. Methods: Photo-elicitation interviews were conducted with 30 black non-Hispanic mothers (ages 19-42) of infants in NYC to explore and document the influence of housing, community and cultural factors. Transcribed interviews were analyzed to identify salient themes. Results: Themes that related to the social context that influence infant sleep decisions included: shared and crowded living spaces; homelessness and family shelters; negative experiences with official agencies like child protection; loud neighbors and neighborhood activities; experiences with the birth hospital. Conclusions: Mothers’ decisions of how and where to put their infants to sleep are influenced by multiple levels of interactions, from their living conditions to their experiences with their neighbors and authorities. MCH professionals need to consider the matrix of factors that mothers experience when making decisions about infant sleep.