New York City’s homeless shelter population is swelling, but one method for moving people into permanent housing is taking longer than ever to complete.
The median timeline for shelter residents moving into city-financed apartments reserved for them has nearly doubled since 2020, according to city data.
Last year, it took about seven months for someone to move into those apartments after the approval process, the annual mayor’s management report shows. But in the 2020 fiscal year, it took less than four months. That timeline is considered to be a “critical indicator” of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s performance.
More New Yorkers did manage to move from shelters to HPD-financed housing last year compared to 2021, with that number again trending up between July and October 2022. The agency said that was due to more completed apartments opening up last year.
The longer wait times come as the city’s shelter population exceeds 80,000 people a night, many of them recently arrived migrants, and as Mayor Eric Adams seeks ways to move people out more quickly to free up space in the beleaguered system.
HPD spokesperson William Fowler said the agency is evaluating how to streamline the move-in process, and noted that more than 1,200 people have moved from shelters to HPD-financed apartments since January, a figure that is on pace to surpass last year’s total.
“The data shows clearly that we’re helping a record number of homeless New Yorkers move out of shelter and into permanent housing and we’re currently on track to exceed last year’s placements,” said Fowler.
But that’s little comfort to New Yorkers in shelters still struggling to navigate the bureaucratic lottery process, relying on the mail or cheap cell phones to send in applications, submit required paperwork and stay up to speed.
Brooklyn native Darren Whitney, 62, wonders if the affordable housing lottery offers a false hope for getting out of a shelter system where he’s…
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