A scathing new report from the Coalition for the Homeless slammed Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul for New York City’s homelessness crisis, saying they both “engaged in harmful and counterproductive strategies” in meeting the needs of the city’s homeless population.
In the past two years, as the city has faced a dire migrant crisis, homelessness among long-term New Yorkers has also risen by nearly 20%, according to the report released Thursday and shared exclusively with the Daily News.
“To summarize the most basic measures of Mayor Adams’ and Governor Hochul’s performance in addressing the crises: there are now more people experiencing homelessness, there is less affordable housing available for those who need it most, and there are more people in desperate need of social services and mental health care than at any time in recent memory,” reads the report.
In addition to the wave of new arrivals from the southern border since 2022, the number of long-term New Yorkers who are homeless has increased by 19%, the report found. In total, the city’s homeless population, including those sleeping in shelters, on streets and “doubled up” in others’ homes, is around 350,000, according to the report — more than the population of Newark, N.J.
“As much attention as we should be giving the issue of new arrivals, we can’t forget that the Mayor and the Governor are still failing to address the underlying causes of mass homelessness,” Dave Giffen, executive director of Coalition for the Homeless, told The News.
The number of new arrivals has slowed since its peak earlier this year. At the highest point, 69,000 migrants were living in shelters in January, according to data from the city comptroller’s office.
Since spring 2022, around 210,000 migrants have come through the local shelter system. There are now around 65,000 migrants living in city shelters across the five boroughs.
The report found that Adams “frequently failed to meet the City’s legal, practical and moral obligation to provide a sufficient number of shelter beds for all in need of such” — a claim that a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services said was “egregious and absolutely inaccurate.”
Last year, Adams challenged the city’s Right to Shelter mandate in court, asking the requirement be stayed if the city lacked the resources to maintain enough shelter sites. The case later came to a settlement.
In response to the criticism, Adams’ press team cited the immense community backlash to new shelters and noted that in fiscal year 2023, the city helped a record number of New Yorkers get permanent housing with city-funded rental assistance, or CityFHEPS, and increased permanent housing placements from shelters by more than 20% in fiscal year 2024 from the previous year, despite a record-low vacancy rate.
More than 75% of the increase in the Department of Homeless Services shelter census is due to the influx of asylum seekers, said a DHS spokesperson, and the city has opened 49 shelters for non-migrants since Adams took office in addition to more than 200 emergency shelters for asylum seekers.
The migrant crisis was largely contained to New York City, which is mandated to provide shelter to anyone who needs a bed.
“The governor just really turned her back on New York City and refused to take a leadership role in dealing with the influx of new arrivals,” Giffen said. “I just find that unconscionable.”
Hochul, for her part, provided state-owned sites to shelter migrants and dedicated billions in the state’s budget to addressing the city’s crisis.
“Governor Hochul has deployed enormous State resources to assist the City’s effort to address the asylum seeker crisis, including $4.3 billion that is paying for shelter, health care, legal services and more,” said Avi Small, a spokesperson for Hochul. “Ultimately, immigration and resettlement are federal issues which is why Governor Hochul continues to call on Republicans in Congress to stop listening to Donald Trump and start supporting common-sense immigration policies.”