City and State Must Meet Unprecedented Scale of Crisis with Proven Solutions

In November 2016, nearly 16,000 families, consisting of more than 48,000 people, were sleeping in New York City homeless shelters each night. The number of adults and children in the family shelter system increased by 14 percent since January 2014 – despite Mayor de Blasio’s efforts to reverse the growing census by both significantly increasing resources for homelessness prevention and providing more permanent housing. This brief examines the factors that contribute to the present crisis and recommends solutions that can reduce the number of people utilizing New York City homeless shelters.