The number of New Yorkers roughing it on city streets and subways jumped by nearly 18% percent in just a year, contrary to Mayor Adams’ efforts to stop people sleeping in public places.
The annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) survey counted 4,042 people sleeping on the streets or in the subways when the citywide count was performed on January 24, up from 3,439 in 2022.
The increase of those without shelter comes after the Adams’ administration has made aggressive efforts to tackle homelessness yet, the city has returned to pre-pandemic levels when then-Mayor Bill de Blasio was frequently criticized for not doing enough to tackle homelessness.
“Over this past year, our agency has responded to a massive humanitarian crisis while ensuring that we are effectively delivering on our mission to address homelessness in New York City,” said Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park, who oversees the Department of Homeless Services, in a statement.
The agency blames a milder-than-usual winter — even though it came amid controversial street sweeps of encampments and a much-touted $171 million new funding for outreach.
Officials pointed out that street homelessness had only increased by 18% as the overall shelter population has nearly doubled, an increase fueled by waves of arrivals from the southern border of people seeking asylum from the violence and economic turmoil in Latin America and the Caribbean.
City Hall proudly touted the bolstered spending to resolve the homeless issue last year, declaring the count had been taken “before Mayor Adams’ historic investment of $171 million in new beds and services for the unsheltered and before plans to focus on unsheltered homelessness in the subways and encampments which prioritize getting our most vulnerable New Yorkers off the streets and into shelter.”
Adams took a jab at his predecessor in April 2022 while saying part of the dough would provide 900 more “Safe Haven” beds in facilities offering temporary space for those homeless who typically shun the city’s notoriously dangerous and decrepit shelters.
Adams’ policies included rounds of controversial street sweeps to clear encampments — a policy that moved just 119 percent of 2,308 homeless New Yorkers living in the encampments into the shelter system, a rate of just 5 percent, according to a scathing audit released by Comptroller Brad Lander on June 28.
Lander’s review of DHS found that the sweeps completely failed to meet their primary goal of connecting homeless individuals with services.
As of January 23, 2023, only 47 people remained in the shelter, and only 3 people secured permanent housing.
The street homelessness figures for 2023 were quietly released by the Department of Homeless Services on the same day the City Council voted to approve the Big Apple’s $107 billion budget and that City Hall finally released the years-in-the-making reports on yeshivas that fail to meet teaching standards.
It was first noted by public media mainstay, WNYC/Gothamist.