Over the course of this past year, the total number of students within New York City that was classified as homeless went up fairly drastically this past year, only adding on to the city’s issues regarding housing and homelessness.
This past Wednesday, new information was pushed out which exposed the fact that over 104,000 students within the public school system of New York City were labeled as homeless over the course of the last school year. The total number of students that were enrolling with public schools inside of the city were being made to live in conditions that were not their own homes, reported The New York Times.
Roughly 30,000 students were being forced to live in shelters, and about 69,000 were living with other families. In the same vein, 5,500 kids were living in area parks, vehicles, and abandoned structures. Well over 60% of the homeless children that were making use of temporary housing structures were “chronically absent” this past year, which means that they were out for roughly 10% of the days of the school year.
The numbers for homelessness went up about 3% from the previous year, and this marks the seventh year in a row that the number has been sitting well above the 100,000 mark. The number did not include any migrant children that have recently arrived and are also homeless.
The issue is one that continued to be quite the hot-button topic for the people of New York City, especially as kids from all walks of life seem to be having fairly extreme issues with school in the wake of the pandemic lockdowns.
The issue of homelessness has been one that has afflicted the city for many years. Well over 63,000 people are made to sleep in shelters each night, and the overall number of adults being forced to do so sits at almost 86% more than it was just 10 years ago, as reported by The Bowery Mission. The record number of those being made to sleep in public shelters was set back in 2019 at 61,415. However, the record was shattered this past month as the latest report stated the new number sat at 62,174.
Just this previous month, Eric Adams, the Democrat Mayor of New York City, put forth questions on the nature of the shelter situation within New York City as more migrants arrived in the city. New York City has a “right to shelter” policy, which means that all homeless people are allowed access to public shelter facilities.
“In this new and unforeseen reality, where we expect thousands more to arrive every week going forward, the city’s system is nearing its breaking point,” expressed Adams in a release. “As a result, the city’s prior practices, which never contemplated the busing of thousands of people into New York City, must be reassessed.”
The chief counsel for the mayor stated, “we are not reassessing the right to shelter. We are reassessing the city’s practices around the right to shelter.”
As stated in a recent Market Place report, the increased pricing of housing and the insane inflation is making life far more difficult for people.
“Those jolts to the economy, they’re impacting real people’s lives and putting them on one side of homelessness or the other,” stated the CEO of the Bowery Mission, James Winans, expressed Market Place. “I think when your housing is unstable, and your employment is unstable, it just follows that any increase in the day-to-day cost of living is going to impact everyone, including those most on the margins.”
