Coalition for the Homeless
Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City
Data and Charts
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Coalition for the Homeless provides up-to-date information on New York City's homeless
population. In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since
the Great Depression. You can find more information about homelessness at the following
pages:
• Basic Fact About Homelessness (main page)
• Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City
Basic Facts About Homelessness: New York City
Data and Charts
This page provides up-to-date statistics and charts about homelessness in New York City. Here
you can find up-to-date data about New York City's homeless shelter population, download
charts and historical statistics about homelessness in New York City, and find an explanation of
data sources.
New York City's Homeless Shelter Population: A
Snapshot (September 2013)
• Total number of homeless people in municipal shelters: 52,351
• Number of homeless families: 12,464
• Number of homeless children: 22,136
• Number of homeless adults in families: 19,171
• Number of homeless single adults: 11,044
• Number of homeless single men: 8,178
• Number of homeless single women: 2,866
A Note on the Data
• Coalition for the Homeless relies on public data sources for statistics about the New
York City homeless shelter population. These data sources record the nightly (or
average nightly) number of homeless people residing in municipal homeless
shelters as well as the unduplicated number of different people who utilize
municipal homeless shelters each year.
• The Coalition reports on the number of homeless adults and children residing in the
municipal shelter system, which is primarily administered by the NYC Department of
Homeless Services. This does not include data about homeless people residing in other public
and private shelters including: families and individuals residing in domestic violence shelters;
runaway and homeless youth residing in youth shelters; homeless people living with AIDS
residing in special emergency housing; homeless people residing in faith-based shelters; and
homeless people sleeping overnight in drop-in centers. Our reports focus on the municipal
shelter system because data for that system is historically consistent over three decades.
Moreover, the large majority of homeless New Yorkers in public and private
shelters -- approximately nine out of ten -- reside in the municipal shelter system.
• The Coalition's data about New York City's homeless shelter population is more accurate
and historically consistent than data currently made available to the public by the
NYC Department of Homeless Services. For instance, the homeless shelter population
data found on the website of the NYC Department of Homeless Services currently excludes
around 2,000 homeless children and adults residing in municipal homeless
shelters, including homeless military veterans. In response to the City's failure to provide
accurate and consistent data, the New York City Council passed a law in 2011 which requires
that accurate data about the number of people sleeping in municipal shelters be made available
to the public online by the Mayor's Office of Operations -- those reports can now be found on
the NYCStat website (under the link "Temporary Housing Assistance Usage"). For more
information on the limitations of the City's publicly-available homelessness data, please look
here.
• While there is accurate data on the sheltered NYC homeless population, there is no reliable
measurement of the unsheltered homeless population in New York City. The City of
New York, under a mandate from the Federal government, produces an annual estimate of the
unsheltered homeless population based on a single winter night's survey. The City's
controversial estimate has been criticized by advocates and academic researchers as a
signficant undercount of the actual number of unsheltered homeless New
Yorkers. Moreover, the City's estimate does not account for unsheltered homeless people
sleeping in non-visible locations. For more information about the flaws in the City's street
homelessness estimate, please look here.
Charts and Data: Downloads
The following documents are available for download:
• New York City Homelessness: Fact Sheet
• The New York City Homeless Shelter Population: Charts
• The New York City Homeless Shelter Population: Historical Data, 1983-Present
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