Today the Coalition for the Homeless released their annual "State of the Homeless" report (below), and the results aren't pretty. According to their numbers there was an eight percent increase in the number of people spending the night in shelters from 2009 to 2010. This includes 28,997 families, which is an 81 percent increase from the number of families in shelters when Mayor Bloomberg first took office.
The Coalition cites the failed Advantage program and efforts to make working homeless families pay rent as causes, saying, "Those programs provided limited, restricted subsidies and then cut off rental assistance even when formerly-homeless families were too poor to afford their apartments." As a result, many homeless families were forced to return to shelters.
To combat homelessness, the Coalition suggests, "Mayor Bloomberg and his administration should target one of every three NYCHA public housing apartments and Section 8 vouchers to help homeless families move from shelters to permanent housing," which is what mayors like Koch and Giuliani did. And everyone knows that Giuliani is remembered for his work with the homeless! However, Homeless Services Commissioner Seth Diamond says it's unrealistic to think that the city will be getting federal housing subsidies any time soon, and the city is focusing on finding jobs for the homeless.
