By Maribel Maria, Policy Associate at HFH and Caroline Iosso, Senior Policy Associate at HFH
This year, family homelessness in New York City rose steeply. As of mid-December, over 12,000 families with children were living in Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters—4,000 more than at the start of the calendar year—and the Adams administration—and about 1,000 less than in 2016 when the City recorded over 13,000 homeless families with children, which was an all-time high. While certainly some of the increase is due to the influx of asylum seekers into the shelter system, this year also saw the end of the eviction moratorium, a rise in inflation, and soaring rents throughout the city. These circumstances combined may have generated the high levels of family homelessness we see in the below snapshot of this past year.
Which month increased the most steeply: September
Rate of increase for the year overall: 50%
Highest number of children in shelter – number and date of occurrence: 21,792 on December 31, 2022 (last 10 days of December were the top 10 days in 2022)
Average # of families with children in shelter for 2022: 9,856
Average # of individuals in families with children for 2022: 30,731
Average # of children in families with children for 2022: 16,932
Average # of school-aged children in shelter (January 2022 – Sept. 2022)*: 12,950
Highest average # of school-aged children in shelter and month of occurrence*: 16,409 in September 2022
*data available through September 2022
Data Sources:
NYC Open Data DHS Daily Report – https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Social-Services/DHS-Daily-Report/k46n-sa2m
DHS Data Dashboards: https://www.nyc.gov/site/dhs/about/stats-and-reports.page