Single Homeless People on the Rise, while Homeless Families have Dramatically Decreased

By Yehudit Garmaise

   Although the COVID pandemic has increased the number of single adults in New York City who are homeless to a record high of 20,000, the Campaign for New York Housing reported, today, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that at the same time, the number of families who live in shelters has dramatically decreased.

   “The sad reality after the Great Recession was that more and more: whole families were going into shelters,” the mayor said with compassion. “We saw working people going into shelters. People who were going to work each day, but they but could not afford to make ends meet in New York City.”

   Although from 2007 to 2009, the Great Recession was a global financial crisis that affected everyone in the country and many in the world, Mayor de Blasio said that New Yorkers were hit particularly hard because of the high price of housing in the city.

   “[Homelessness] is all about the cost of housing and how so many people were not being paid enough for the work they did,” said Mayor de Blasio, who said that he when he came into office in 2010, right after the Great Recession ended, the number of families who were entering homeless shelters was rising, but since COVID, the city has thankfully seen the number of homeless families reduce substantially.

     “Thank G-d, families have been able to find some alternatives to shelters,” said the mayor, who added that more than 125,000 people have left the streets to go into shelters and then into permanent, affordable housing since he came into office in 2010.”

   “So, yes, more single adults [are homeless], but we have a pathway to get them to affordable housing and the services they need, and we will continue to do that,” said Mayor de Blasio, who said his administration is constantly “conducting massive outreach plans” to address the problem of homelessness in the city.

  “Anyone who is ‘street homeless’ is living in the worst of all worlds,” said the mayor, who explained that the city has several agencies that work together to end long-term homelessness. “We want people off the streets and into shelters, and then to get help such as services in mental health and substance addiction.”

Photo: Marc A. Hermann / MTA New York City Transit