NYC Homeless Population Is Growing, Research Shows

NEW YORK, NY — New York City's homeless population expanded by about 4 percent in 2017 as the number of homeless people nationwide grew to about 553,000, according to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report released Wednesday.

Federal officials counted 76,501 people living in shelters and on the streets in New York City on a single night early this year, up from 75,523 in 2016. About 5 percent of homeless New Yorkers, about 3,900 people, weren't living in shelters, HUD's report says.

About 45,000 of homeless New Yorkers, or 59 percent, are living with their families in shelters, the HUD report says. No homeless families are living on the streets.

The city's homeless population grew at a much faster rate than the nation's, which saw its first increase in seven years. The 0.7 percent rise was driven by a 9 percent spike in people living on the street, while the number of people in shelters or transitional housing dropped by 3 percent.

New York and Los Angeles together are home to nearly a quarter of the nation's entire homeless population, the HUD report says. The number of homeless people in Los Angeles spiked nearly 26 percent to more than 55,000, with three quarters of them living on the streets.

“The commonality in these places is rapidly rising rents and not rapidly rising income,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson told reporters Wednesday, according to the New York Daily News.

New York City's homeless population is the largest in the nation and is home to about 85 percent of all homeless people in New York State, according to HUD figures.

The city's homeless population has grown nearly 13 percent under Mayor Bill de Blasio. HUD counted about 67,800 homeless New Yorkers in 2014, the Democrat's first year in office. The number of homeless people statewide has increased 43 percent in the past decade.

The city's Department of Homeless Services says there about 60,000 people staying in city-run shelters each night, said Jaclyn Rothenberg, a de Blasio spokeswoman. The HUD numbers include people staying in shelters or other transitional housing not overseen by the city, Rothenberg said.

De Blasio has pledged to open 90 new homeless shelters across the five boroughs to help get people off the streets. The mayor's plan to build or preserve 300,000 affordable apartments is part of a plan to prevent more people from becoming homeless, his office says.

"These numbers are consistent with what we’ve been combating and what we’ve forecasted as a big part of an affordability crisis that has spared no corner of the country," Rothenberg said in a statement. "That’s why the Mayor put forward an aggressive affordable housing plan and a realistic shelter plan to offer homeless New Yorkers the best chance to get back on their feet."

(Lead image: A homeless man named Mike begs for money in Manhattan on July 24. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)