[1] The number of homeless individuals residing in NYC's shelter system has skyrocketed in the past year, rising 53% in 2024 when compared to the statistics in 2023, despite efforts from Mayor Eric Adams.
[3] In 2018 6,100 adults entered from institutional settings, including: 3,466 from prison, 1,294 from non-hospital facilities (i.e. nursing homes), 760 from psychiatric hospitals, and 580 discharged from Rikers Island.
[4] The NYC Asian homeless population is marginally higher than the statistic shown above, and found in Chinatown based shelters or are on the streets.
As of 2024, additional demographic data was released, revealing that 71% of those in homeless shelters were part of families, which included 45,852 children.
Brooklyn nonprofit CAMBA, Inc operates several HomeBase locations as well as an outfitted "You Can Van," which uses data on pending evictions to travel throughout the borough and offer help.
According to Mary Brosnaham, spokeswoman for Coalition for the Homeless, the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg employs a deliberate policy of "active deterrence".
[11] In March 2010, there were protests about the Governor's proposed cut of $65 million in annual funding to the homeless adult services system.
[12] The Bloomberg administration announced an immediate halt to the Advantage program, threatening to cast 15,000 families back into the shelters or onto the streets.
However, the Advantage program[13] itself was consciously advanced by the Bloomberg administration as an alternative to providing long-term affordable housing opportunities for the poor and working class.
A vicious anti-homeless campaign called 'Peek-A-Boo, We See You Too' led by a union of NYPD officers sparked an uproar about the presence of homeless people more generally.
[16] In 2015, Bill de Blasio introduced HOME-STAT (Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement Street Action Teams).
HOME-STAT is a city-wide case management system which compiles information on unsheltered homelessness from 311 calls and street canvassing teams.
The 1993 Loper case was a challenge to the state-wide law in the New York Penal Code §240.35(1) which made it an offence to loiter in a public place for the purpose of begging.