New York faced a staggering 53% spike in homelessness last year, making it the highest per capita homelessness rate in the nation, according to federal officials. This is largely due to an influx of immigrants who have been housed in shelters in the Big Apple.
More than 158,000 people in the Empire State don't have a permanent roof over their heads — out of more than 771,000 homeless people counted in the U.S. in 2024, new report says. It was discovered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development.
Clearing a backlog of evictions dating back to the COVID-19 pandemic, a low supply of affordable housing, rising rent prices, and even Gotham's immigration crisis are all cited in the report, resulting in New York 81 people ended up suffering from homelessness. Every 10,000.
A HUD report released last month said immigrants staying in emergency shelters across the five boroughs “account for nearly 88% of the increase in sheltered homelessness in New York City.”
Nearly 60,000 migrants were living in the city's shelters as of Monday, officials said. According to City Hall, between Dec. 30 and last Sunday, 400 new people moved in and 1,300 people left city care.
Since spring 2022, more than 200,000 migrants have arrived in the city. At its peak last spring, the city was home to nearly 70,000 immigrants.
Overall, there were 140,134 homeless people in the city last year, and 88,025 in 2023. According to Newsdayciting HUD data.
According to the Homeless Coalition, 130,438 people were sleeping in city shelters in October alone, and the nonprofit estimates that thousands more were on the streets that month.
Other alarming numbers in the HUD report included a disgusting 152% increase in the number of homeless people in New York State between 2007 and 2024.
In 2024, more than 95,000 households in New York state faced homelessness, according to the report. Additionally, 3,203 unaccompanied minors became homeless last year, an increase of 71% from 2023.
The report notes that improved or increased PIT training (referring to efforts to count people living on the street) may have had an impact on the increase in homeless numbers in New York.
The state's Office of Temporary Disability Assistance, which oversees housing services, did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday.
