Record-High 120K NYC Students Were Homeless Last School Year: Study

NEW YORK CITY — More than 119,000 New York City public school students experienced homelessness last year, according to a new study.

The heartbreaking homelessness tally not only accounted for one in nine students during the 2022-2023 school year, but also set a new record, the study released Wednesday by Advocates for Children of New York found.

Student homelessness last year was 4 percent higher than the previous peak in 2017-2018, when public school enrollment was 8 percent higher, the study found.

Kim Sweet, executive director for Advocates for Children of New York, pressed city officials to increase shelter-based staff.

"No child in New York City should be homeless, but until we reach that goal, access to a quality education is our best possible tool for ensuring those living in shelter don't re-enter the system as adults," she said in a statement.

The city has seen eight consecutive years in which more than 100,000 public school students were identified as homeless, the study found.

Roughly 41,000 of students in temporary housing last year spent time in shelters and 73,000 were "doubled up," or temporarily sharing the housing of others, the study found.

Sweet argued that the data showed a continued need for community coordinators to work in shelters.

About 100 of those coordinators were hired using temporary funds and city officials have put forward no plan to continue that position, advocates said.

"Losing the shelter-based Community Coordinators would almost certainly increase the already sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism and make it even more difficult for students in shelter to succeed in school," Sweet said. "The City should be increasing shelter-based public school staff to meet the tremendous need—and at the very least needs a plan to sustain these critical positions."