The number of homeless individuals sleeping in city shelters crept over 50,000 last year, reaching the highest point ever according to an annual report by the Coalition for the Homeless. The data echoes the spike in homelessness seen under former Mayor Bloomberg, and has advocacy groups pushing Mayor de Blasio to make good on his campaign promises to address the epidemic.
The annual State of the Homeless report [pdf] was released today, showing that a record 53,615 homeless individuals spent the night in shelters from January 2013 to January 2014. That number is up from the already record number of people in shelters noted in 2012 and 2013; and even more sobering is the fact that the number of homeless families entering the shelter system increased 12 percent last year, with nearly 23,000 homeless children sleeping in shelters nightly.
Though Bloomberg had previously claimed combating homelessness was one of the cornerstones of his administration, the record number of homeless individuals both in and outside of the shelter system suggests that failed. But advocates say de Blasio's push to alleviate the city's homeless problem and add more affordable units to the housing stock may undo some of the damage—"The administration and all New Yorkers understand this really is the turning point,” Coalition for the Homeless executive director Mary Brosnahan told the Times. “The focus on housing is going to turn the tide." The new administration has already made moves to combat heavily documented problems within family shelters, and plans to remove 400 children from two shelters that were highly cited in multiple inspections.
