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NYC residents shoulder larger cost of homeless family shelter funding, report finds
By
Chau Lam
Published Mar 13, 2023
Modified Mar 14, 2023
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Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
By
Chau Lam
Published Mar 13, 2023
Modified Mar 14, 2023
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New York City residents are paying a larger share of the hundreds of millions of dollars to house homeless people over the last decade, according to an analysis by a nonpartisan budget watchdog group.
Ever since Albany lawmakers shifted the financial burden onto the city, New York City taxpayers are picking up more than 76% of the costs of providing shelter to homeless families, up from 31% a decade ago, the analysis by the city’s Independent Budget Office found.
During the 2013 fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to to June 30, it cost the city $490.6 million to provide emergency shelter for homeless families in the five boroughs. New York City picked up $151.2 million or nearly 31% of the costs, and the remainder were covered by state and federal funds.
Fast forward a decade later, the city picked up more than 76% of the costs, or $754.8 million of $987.5 million, to house homeless families in the last fiscal year.
The city's share of the funding has increased over the last decade. Meanwhile in recent years the federal portion has gone down.
Graph courtesy of the IBO.
The report comes as the city is expected to spend an estimated $4 billion in this fiscal year to meet the needs of thousands of asylum seekers arriving in New York City since last spring after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Even before the current influx of asylum seekers, for years the city has shouldered a growing share of shelter costs compared with the state and federal governments,” according to the report.
Mayor Eric Adams has pleaded with the federal and state officials for help, but little money has shown up so far.
“While our city may be the face of the asylum seeker crisis, it is not a crisis we can solve on our own,” Adams said in the recently released The Road Forward: A Blueprint to Address New York City's Response to the Asylum Seeker Crisis. “A comprehensive response from all levels of government – especially from our state and federal partners – is needed.”
In her executive budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed reimbursing the city 29% of the costs associated with shelter and other services to all asylum seekers, but the governor limited the spending to $1 billion over two years.
Unlike other places, New York City is legally required to provide shelter to homeless individuals and families.
The city’s Department of Homeless Services, which oversees two separate shelter systems, one for individuals and one for families, relies on a mix of money from the federal, state, and city funds.
However, the governor and state lawmakers decide what share of the federal and state funds goes to municipalities through cost-sharing formulas. Over the last decade, the state reduced its contribution and changed the cost-sharing formula, leaving New York City residents paying for a bigger chunk, according to the Independent Budget Office.
In the shelter system for individuals, the city bears most of the costs with a tiny sum coming from the federal government and some from the state. As of Sunday, there were 70,941 homeless people living in the city’s largest shelter system managed by the Department of Social Services, according to the city’s daily count. Thousands more homeless individuals live shelters managed by other city.
Correction: A previous version of this story inaccurately stated the cost of emergency shelters for homeless families in 2013. It was $490.6 million, of which the city paid 31% of. The story also misstated the dates of the city's fiscal year.
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economy
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Chau Lam
Chau Lam was a reporter at Gothamist.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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