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Annual Survey Shows Increase in City's Homeless Population
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 28, 2012
Modified Apr 28, 2012
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 28, 2012
Modified Apr 28, 2012
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More New Yorkers are living on the streets this year than last, according to an annual survey of homelessness in the city. The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) survey, which was conducted by the Department of Homeless Services on January 30, found the number of homeless people increased from 2,648 in 2011 to 3,262, marking an overall increase of 23 percent. Which means it's the perfect time to cut off funding to one of the city's major homeless advocacy groups!
And the discouraging numbers may be even more dire than the survey suggests. Patrick Markee, the senior policy analyst for the Coalition for the Homeless, gave a statement on Friday that critiqued the survey's results and methods, saying that the survey—which is conducted overnight by thousands of volunteers who walk through the city and count the number of people they see sleeping on the street—"consistently fails" to come up with an accurate number. While decoys posing as the homeless are placed around the city during the night of the survey to ensure volunteers are doing their job properly, there are still many homeless individuals who remain hidden from view and are therefore uncounted, especially in the middle of the winter, when fewer people sleep on the street.
While the number of homeless New Yorkers has increased over the past year, the survey's results do note that the city's homeless population has decreased considerably since 2005, in which 4,395 people living on the street were counted, and Manhattan's homeless population is down 50 percent. The number of people seeking shelter in the subways, however, has nearly doubled over the past seven years, with a 93 percent increase overall.
Tagged
department of homeless services
homelessness
Patrick Markee
Rebecca Fishbein
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