The number of homeless New Yorkers staying on the streets and subways is up by nearly 18% this year, despite intensive efforts by Mayor Eric Adams to stop people from bedding down in public spaces, according to an annual point-in-time count conducted in January.
The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, or HOPE Survey, counted 4,042 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness on Jan. 24, up from 3,439 in last year’s count and 2,376 in 2021. The city’s Department of Social Services, which oversees the Department of Homeless Services, attributed the rise to mild weather and the end of COVID-related interventions, such as the use of federally funded private rooms in commercial hotels, which led to a far lower count earlier in the pandemic.
But the increase occurred a year after Adams made moving homeless New Yorkers off the streets and subways a top priority, through a mix of aggressive enforcement, police-led encampment sweeps and outreach efforts.
Legal Aid Society Homeless Rights Project attorney Josh Goldfein called the point-in-time survey “flawed” and a likely undercount, but said the increase shows Adams’ approach to addressing street homelessness isn’t working.
“Whatever the precise number is, the solution for each of these individuals is well known: a permanent affordable home,” he said. “The city should cease its cruel and useless policy of pushing people out of spaces where they have found refuse and instead offer them what they really need.”
A report issued last week by City Comptroller Brad Lander found that just three of the 2,308 homeless people who were forcibly removed from encampments between March and November of 2022 ended up in permanent housing.
But DSS Commissioner Molly Wasow Park said the rise was modest given the major increase to the city’s shelter population, which has roughly doubled since the beginning of 2022, and the ongoing efforts to find space for a number of newly arrived immigrants.
“Over this past year, our…
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