City Touts Drop In Homelessness, But Advocates Call It PR Stunt

NEW YORK, NY – The amount of homeless people living on the streets of New York City has dropped in the past year, according to city officials citing a count that was carried out on the night of January 22.

But the claim was attacked by advocates working with the city's homeless population who called it a publicity push which used figures that were "notoriously inaccurate."

The Department of Homeless Services said the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate counted 3,675 homeless people on the streets in the city on Jan. 22, six percent less than the same time the year before and 16 percent fewer than when they were first counted in 2005.

But 2017's number marked a 40 percent increase on 2016's.

“It can take dozens or more contacts to convince street homeless New Yorkers to come in off the streets and subways and into shelter. Homelessness wasn’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight, but thanks to the persistence of our outreach teams we’re turning the tide on this decades-old challenge,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

But Giselle Routhier, Policy Director for the Coalition for the Homeless, responded by saying: “The City’s annual estimate of the number of homeless people living on the streets is more PR than substance. Instead of celebrating a small decrease in this notoriously inaccurate count, the city should focus on the only thing that will really make a difference: permanent affordable housing.

"If the Mayor wants to reduce the number of people living on our city’s streets, he needs to make sure that 10% of the 300,000 units being built or preserved under his affordable housing plan are specifically set aside for homeless New Yorkers – including 24,000 new construction units – and needs to further accelerate the number of supportive housing units coming online."

City officials pointed out that this past winter was particularly warm, which usually means a higher number of people living on the street. The night of the survey was 37 degrees.

Lead image via Shutterstock / Srdjan Randjelovi