NYC Homeless Shelter Bills Spike As Feds, State Pay Smaller Share

NEW YORK, NY — New York City's bill for sheltering homeless people has spiked in the last five years as the state and federal governments picked up less of the tab, according to a report published Wednesday.

The city covered 44 percent of the costs to house homeless families last year, or about $421 million, the city's Independent Budget Office found. That's up from 31 percent, or $151 million, in 2013.

At the same time, the federal government's share has dropped from 59 percent to 49 percent. The feds sent $471 million to the city in 2017, up from $304 million in the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years. But that larger amount represented a smaller portion of the bill, as the total population of family shelters grew by more than 3,700 people, or about 32 percent.

City spending on shelters for single adults more than doubled from $245 million in 2013 to $503 million in 2017, the report shows. But the state and the feds kept their share steady even as that shelter population grew by about 4,000 people, or 42 percent.

The state has kicked in an average of $73 million a year over the past five years for single adult shelters, which the city has always mostly funded. The state's share of the bill for family shelters has stayed similarly flat at around 9 percent annually, the report shows.

The financial burden of homelessness isn't likely to shift away from the city as Mayor Bill de Blasio moves forward with his plan to open 90 new homeless shelters.

Funding for homeless services in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2019 state budget doesn't keep pace with increasing costs and continues to shift responsibility to the city, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, a city-based advocacy group.

President Donald Trump's federal budget proposal keeps flat the $2.4 billion in funding for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Homeless Assistance Grants, which help cities pay for homeless services. The federal budget also proposes $255 million in funding for emergency shelters.

(Lead image: Elijah Salters stands outside the Auburn Family Residence, a homeless shelter in Fort Greene, Brooklyn in February 2014. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)