‘Nowhere to go’: More New Yorkers are entering city homeless shelters, report says

The lack of affordable apartments in New York City is driving more New Yorkers into homeless shelters, according to a new report.

The Coalition for the Homeless, a nonprofit advocacy group, released an annual report Thursday finding the number of asylum-seekers in the city’s care plummeted last year, but the number of non-migrant residents in shelters rose nearly 12%.

The report comes as the city and nonprofit providers brace for deep cuts by the Trump administration to programs that house and feed New Yorkers. Those funding reductions could push even more people into poverty and homelessness, advocates and city officials warn. Meanwhile, rents have skyrocketed, pandemic-era aid programs have ended and just 0.4% of apartments priced at less than $1,100 a month are vacant.

According to the coalition, nearly 4 in 10 single adults in shelters said they did not have a place to live because of conflicts in their homes, overcrowding or unlivable conditions.

For families with children, domestic violence and evictions were among the top drivers of homelessness.

“ People have nowhere to go because there just has not been any serious investment in affordable housing for the people who need it,” said Dave Giffen, executive director for the Coalition for the Homeless.

“Both the mayor and the governor have really been focused on the appearances of the crisis and not the fundamental reasons for the crisis," he added. "There is simply no place for low-income New Yorkers to live."

The city operates five shelter systems housing different populations, including young adults, families, single adults, domestic violence survivors and people with HIV/AIDS. The Department of Homeless Services, which oversees the largest system, said it has dramatically increased exits to permanent housing, largely through subsidized vouchers.

Neha Sharma, a spokesperson for the agency, said Mayor Eric Adams' administration made critical investments to help New Yorkers after pandemic-era aid programs ended. She said without the city’s efforts, the housing crisis could have driven the shelter population much higher.

“While this is a testament to this administration’s commitment to addressing homelessness and housing insecurity, we need more support from other levels of government to comprehensively address the citywide crisis of homelessness and expand rehousing solutions,” she said.

The report credits the Department of Homeless Services with boosting the number of people who left shelters for permanent housing by 24% in fiscal year 2024, compared to the previous year. The agency said its own data shows a greater increase of 38% in the 2024 calendar year, and a 7% increase in its non-asylum-seeker population.

But the Coalition for the Homeless said that despite the department's efforts, more people continue entering shelters due to the city's housing shortage. The group said programs meant to house homeless people are underfunded and plagued by bureaucratic delays.

That includes a significant dip in the number of shelter residents moving into public housing. While thousands of NYCHA units remain vacant, the report said just 500 shelter residents were moved to one of those units in 2024, down from 1,500 in 2021.

The Adams administration said it has since streamlined the process and is on track to double the number of shelter residents moving into NYCHA this fiscal year.

The coalition criticized Adams' approach as too focused on clearing homeless people from the street and adding police to public spaces, rather than finding more ways to permanently house people. The mayor’s homeless encampment sweeps over nine months last year resulted in 114 people placed in shelter, out of 3,500 people displaced by the sweeps, Gothamist previously reported.

City Hall spokesperson William Fowler defended the mayor’s policies and said he’s helped tens of thousands of homeless New Yorkers into housing. He also touted Adams’ record of financing new affordable housing and his signature City of Yes plan which will make way for more than 80,000 homes over the next 15 years.

“Mayor Adams has been clear that there is no dignity in withering away on the streets without the ability to help yourself, and there is no moral superiority in just walking by those individuals and doing nothing,” Fowler said in a statement.

“Whether it’s addressing the migrant crisis or providing a safety net to all New Yorkers, for decades, New York City has absorbed more of the cost and responsibility as other levels of government have abandoned our most vulnerable through cuts," he added. "We need and expect more from our state and federal partners and hope that advocates will use their voices to call on them to do the same.”

The report by the Coalition for the Homeless also highlights the need to better house homeless people with mental health issues as the state expands involuntary commitments. Giffen said there’s no clear data on what happens after an involuntarily committed person is discharged from a health care facility.

“There is still no housing available for those individuals and they end up right back on the streets. It is a revolving door that's been going on for decades,” he said.

The report said there were fewer inpatient psychiatric beds at the end of last fiscal year than in 2014. Many were shuttered during the pandemic, and hospitals have little incentive to reopen them, the coalition found.

The report partly attributed the rise in homelessness to the failure of other institutions in helping people secure housing. That has made the city’s shelter system a “catch-all” for people released from state prisons, jails, psychiatric facilities, hospitals and foster care, according to the report. It found 43% of those discharged from state prisons end up in a city shelter.

This story has been updated with additional information from a City Hall spokesperson.