1 in 8 NYC Public School Students Experienced Homelessness Last Year. See How Many Were in Your District.

A record-high 146,733 students were living in the shelter system, doubled up, or staying in hotels, motels, or unsheltered, a new report finds. In some school districts, as many as one in five experienced homelessness.

A record-high 146,733 students in New York City public schools experienced homelessness last school year, a new report shows. It’s the ninth year in a row where the number of homeless students surpassed 100,000.

The analysis by Advocates for Children (AFC) uses data from the state’s Education Department and shows a 23 percent increase from the prior year, the largest single year jump in nine years of recorded data.

“Children who were in kindergarten the first year the city hit the ignominious 100,000 threshold have now started high school,” the report said. “There are more students without a permanent place to call home than there are seats at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field combined.”

The majority of students who experienced homelessness last year, 54 percent, were “doubled up” in shared housing, such as staying with family or friends. Over 60,000 students spent time living in city shelters, while about 6,900 “were living in hotels or motels, unsheltered, or otherwise lacking a regular and adequate nighttime residence,” the report said.

In the past year, the city’s general shelter population has hit record highs, with a record 150,000 people living in city shelters in December 2023, according to City Limits’ estimates. Of the 90,000 people staying in Department of Homeless Services Shelters on Nov.14, over a third were children.

“Students benefit when they have stability and consistency. Our students who are housing unstable have some of the most disruptive experiences,” said Sarah Jonas, vice president of the youth division at Children’s Aid, a group that provides support services for students in temporary housing.

Students in some New York City neighborhoods were more likely to experience homelessness than others. In Bushwick, East Harlem, Brownsville, and the Northwest Bronx, over one in five students experienced homelessness last year.

The highest student homelessness rate was in Bronx School District 9, which spans the neighborhoods of Claremont, Concourse, Highbridge, Morrisania, Morris Heights and University Heights. Of 39,162 students in the district, 8,450 experienced homelessness in 2023-24, accounting for 22 percent of the public school population. 

Those disparities highlight the need for policy changes, AFC argued in a statement. “Right now, districts receive no additional per-pupil funding from the State to help meet the educational needs of students in temporary housing,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of AFC.

Students who experience homelessness “face tremendous obstacles to success in school,” the report said, including being three times as likely to drop out, scoring 20 percentage points lower on English Language Arts (ELA proficiency), and higher rates of chronic absenteeism.

“While the City works to help families find permanent housing, it must also focus more attention on helping students succeed in school,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of AFC’s Learners in Temporary Housing Project, in a statement.

The record number of students experiencing homelessness also comes amid an increase in immigrant families arriving in New York, and the election of a incoming president who has promised mass deportations for undocumented immigrants.

According to City Limits’ Shelter Tracker, 78 percent of asylum seekers staying in temporary shelters on Sept. 30 were part of families with children.

In addition to per-pupil funding to help address the needs of homeless students, AFC called for the city to ensure families are placed in shelters near their children’s schools, and eliminate 60-day shelter limits, which have been in place for migrant families with children since January.

Mayor Adams’ administration has previously promised that “every child will remain in their school,” but advocates argue that stay limits have disrupted families.

“It’s not only disruptive in terms of getting to school because you may be moved much farther away or to a different shelter, but it's also very difficult in terms of young people’s feeling of safety and mental health,” said Children’s Aid’s Jonas.

“I know one individual she’s leaving at four or five in the morning to get to a school in Brooklyn, but they placed them [in shelter] in the Bronx,” said Kadisha Davis, a housing policy fellow at the Family Homelessness Coalition, who works closely with families in shelters.

On Monday, Mayor Adams announced that families with school-aged children receiving their second 60-day notice will be able to stay in the same shelter, citing a declining shelter census for the last 19 weeks. 

The change is “making it easier for those children to continue attending their same schools and saving the city hundreds of thousands spent on busing those students to those schools,” said Mayor Adams in a statement. 

Kadisha Davis emphasized that homelessness is also a housing affordability problem for families. Formerly homeless herself, Davis pointed to a range of systems that needed improvement to stem the rising tide of student homelessness: more housing, direct cash transfers, fighting voucher discrimination, and more support for homeless students in schools. 

“There’s a lot of good ideas,” said Davis. “New York City is like a jigsaw puzzle and it's cracking at the seams.”

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