NYC Proposed Budget For Homeless Services Underfunded By $200M: Report

NEW YORK, NY — Mayor Bill de Blasio has under-budgeted funding for homeless services by nearly $200 million in his proposed budget for 2018, according to a report released Wednesday by the city's independent budget office.

The city's Department of Homeless Services has a budget of nearly $1.7 billion in the 2017 fiscal year. But for 2018, de Blasio has allotted less money to be spent on homeless services, apparently predicting a dip in the city's homeless population that we have yet to see. De Blasio has proposed $1.4 billion for the department in the 2018 fiscal year, a proposal that the city's independent budget watchdog says is $190 million less than what the department will likely need.

Sarah Stefanski, a budget and policy analyst with the the NYC Independent Budget Office, wrote that "barring any major changes to current initiatives or the implementation of new programs aimed at prevention of homelessness or provision of permanent housing, the shelter population in 2018 is likely to remain above the levels for which DHS is currently budgeted."

De Blasio released a preliminary expense budget for the 2018 fiscal year in January. As homeless shelter populations remain at record highs throughout the city, the IBO report concluded that the mayor's anticipated dip in funding is unlikely. In recent years, the budget passed by the city council has underfunded DHS, causing additional cash to be sent to the department mid-year. The 2017 budget passed by City Council last year allotted an expense budget of $1.29 billion. That number has since risen to $1.7 billion as the homeless population has remained high throughout the city.

The report concluded that a growing DHS budget for the foreseeable future is likely: "continued increases in the cost of sheltering the city’s homeless population is likely to be the norm over the next few years."