Homelessness in New York: Why the numbers have grown

Homelessness soared 53% in New York last year due to factors including a lack of affordable housing supply, high rents and a rising number of asylum-seekers, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The annual figures also showed a record number of people, including families with children and unaccompanied youths, are experiencing homelessness across the country, with an 18% overall increase in the problem nationally in 2024.

Rising inflation, wages that have not kept up with costs and systemic racism are straining the "homelessness services system," the report found.

A rising number of immigrants and the end of COVID-19 pandemic-era measures that included programs to shelter the unhoused also compounded the problem, according to HUD's annual report.

What's going on statewide?

The HUD report found New York State faced the highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country, with 158,019 people experiencing homelessness in 2024.

It said New York State's overall increase is linked to multiple issues, including increased evictions resulting from pandemic-era backlogs during a state eviction moratorium, higher rents and an overall lack of affordable housing. The report also cited the termination of COVID-19 related funding that supported housing initiatives and a surge of migrants in New York City.

It said asylum-seekers in emergency shelters "accounted for almost 88% of the increase in sheltered homelessness in New York City."

In response to the report, officials at the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance said as part of the most recent budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul secured a plan to increase housing stock through new tax incentives for upstate communities and to create more housing in New York City with new incentives.

There’s also a $500 million capital fund to build up to 15,000 new homes on state-owned property, plus an additional $600 million in funding to support housing developments statewide, according to department officials.

What about on Long Island?

On Long Island, a growing problem of homelessness is evident, according to advocates for the unhoused. In 2024, 4,002 homeless people were counted locally — including those in domestic violence shelters — a 13% increase from 2023, according to audits the nonprofit Long Island Coalition for the Homeless conducted.

Local advocates have attributed the rise in homelessness to the lifting of eviction moratoriums related to the pandemic, high living costs and the lack of both affordable housing and housing in general. 

A 2024 report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found 51.4% of renters on Long Island are considered "cost burdened," as Newsday previously reported, which, according to the federal government, happens when more than 30% of income is used for housing costs.

Greta Guarton, the executive director of Long Island Coalition for the Homeless, said in an email the loss of pandemic-era benefits coupled with the lifting of eviction moratoriums proved challenging for "families who were already struggling."

According to the coalition, top causes for homelessness locally in 2024 included eviction and job loss. There also are more people without housing who are ages 18 to 19 and have their own children, according to the nonprofit, which expects to release new homeless figures later this month after another population count.

Peggy Boyd, vice president of advocacy and community services at Huntington-based nonprofit Family Service League, said she is seeing more homeless young families as well as seniors. She said there simply isn’t enough affordable housing.

"It’s very troubling when you see seniors that are in their 70s, living on a fixed income, who can’t find any rental units," Boyd said.

Communities on Long Island being impacted include Uniondale, Brentwood, Bay Shore, Hempstead and Huntington, among others, according to Long Island Coalition for the Homeless officials.

In Suffolk County, expensive rents are due to a low rental unit supply, according to a 2024 report by the county legislature's Welfare to Work Commission.

"Only 17.1% of Suffolk’s housing stock is rental compared with Westchester County, which has a rental stock of 35.5%," the county report states. It found a family would need a $90,000 income to afford a HUD fair market rental for an average two-bedroom unit that rents for $2,508. 

HUD fair market rentals "are an estimate of the amount of money that would cover rent and utility expenses on 40 percent of the rental housing units in an area," according to the department.  

New U.S. Census Bureau data last month also showed owner-occupied housing units and home values on Long Island went up in the last five years, Newsday previously reported, with housing experts saying such value increases can drive up rental costs. 

The median value of a home in Nassau County went up 14% between 2019 and 2023, while Suffolk had a 14.6% increase in the same period. The owner-occupied housing rate in both counties measured 81.9%.

What about in New York City?

The Manhattan-based Coalition for the Homeless said the homelessness problem has been increasing for years.

"The issue of the new arrivals, of migrants, is an overlay over a five-decade-old housing and homelessness crisis," said Dave Giffen, the nonprofit's executive director.

There were 140,134 homeless people in New York City in 2024, compared with 88,025 in 2023, according to HUD data.

On Dec. 10, Mayor Eric Adams announced a shelter in Brooklyn at former military air base Floyd Bennett Field would be one of 25 city shelters to close in the next two months, saying President Joe Biden's administrative order to reduce border crossings had drastically lowered the number of people seeking asylum in the city, Newsday reported.

The pending closure was the latest step Adams' administration took to wind down the city's response to the arrival of about 250,000 migrants since spring 2022 as the population of new arrivals steadily dropped and President-elect Donald Trump promises mass deportations, The Associated Press reported.

Giffen said there has been no comprehensive effort to help migrants resettle and added that in the city, "the underlying problems that result in mass homelessness are still not being addressed."