“Jennifer Erb-Downward, a principal policy analyst at the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness, said the city’s single-year growth is ‘unprecedented,’ adding that student homelessness remains most heavily concentrated in the Bronx, though displacement affects students in all five boroughs.
‘The new numbers are just really, really striking, and I think that they are a sign of the larger impact that homelessness is having in New York City,’ Erb-Downward said. ‘Right now, I don’t think we know what contributed to that large spike.’
While the largest surge was among doubled-up students, increasing by 26 percent, she said the increase in the number of students living in shelters was particularly shocking. This student population, which often faces the greatest education hurdles, grew by 15 percent.”