Report Finds Homeless Students Miss More School, And What Else Happened This Week in Housing

More than half of students living in the shelter system were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed one in every 10 school days, an analysis from Advocates for Children found—prompting calls for the city and state to step up support.

More than half of New York City students living in the homeless shelter system were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed one in every 10 school days, an analysis from Advocates for Children found—prompting calls for the city and state to step up support.

The nonprofit examined data on a subset of the more than 154,000 students identified as homeless during the 2024-2025 school year, which saw a record high in the number of unhoused children enrolled.

In addition to missing more school, kids experiencing homelessness scored lower on state math and reading tests than their permanently-housed peers, the report found. They were also more likely to have transferred schools at least once during the school year—moves that experts say disrupt their classroom progress, as kids “adjust to new teachers, peers, curricula, and routines, often with little advance warning.”

“Chronic absenteeism combined with high rates of school transfers translate to huge losses in learning,” Christine Quinn, head of the family shelter provider WIN, said in a statement in response to the report, published Monday. “As the family homelessness crisis continues to swell, this new education data highlights the urgent need to move families out of shelter and into permanent housing as swiftly as possible.”

Quinn specifically called for Mayor Zohran Mamdani to expand the city’s rental assistance program, CityFHEPS—something the new mayor has declined to do, citing the voucher initiative’s ballooning costs (though he’d pledged otherwise when running for office).

Advocates also pressed the governor and State Legislature to boost funding and resources for schools with students experiencing homelessness. And they called for City Hall to make sure unhoused students are placed in shelters near their schools to avoid long commutes and frequent transfers, and to provide better educational support to families, including access to early childhood education programs.

“Making New York City a more affordable place to live is essential, but the tens of thousands of students who are homeless right now cannot wait for long-term policy changes to take effect,” Jennifer Pringle, director of Advocates for Children’s Learners in Temporary Housing Project, said in a statement.

“Education is the best tool we have to prevent future homelessness, and only bold leadership from City Hall can bring the urgency and coordination needed to ensure students who are homeless can get to school every day and access the educational support they need to thrive.”

The number of students in city schools experiencing homelessness has increased for the last five consecutive years. The majority of those children during the 2024-2025 school year—86 percent—were Black or Hispanic, and 42 percent were English Language Learners, the AFC report found. Read the whole thing here.

And here’s what else happened in housing this week—

ICYMI, from City Limits:

• New York State Sen. Luis Sepúlveda, who also has a private law practice, failed to appear in court for tenants he was defending from eviction on multiple occasions, a City Limits review found; housing court judges chastised him at least twice, and more than one tenant lost their case as a result. Find more reporting on the lawmaker’s legal work from Hell Gate and New York Focus.
• “I reject the premise that us going after bad landlords is the same thing as not working with the real estate industry. They are two different things,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg, who spoke to City Limits about housing policy in the Mamdani administration’s first 100 days in office.
  

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

• Sunnyside residents are looking for more detail—and many are skeptical—about the Mamdani administration’s appeal to President Trump to revive development plans for the massive Sunnyside Railyard, Gothamist reports.
• It’s taking the city an average of eight months to move tenants into affordable housing projects, a new report found, according to The City.
• NYCHA CEO Lisa Bova-Hiatt spoke with Pix 11 reporter Monica Morales about the future of the city’s public housing.
• The New York Times looks at the ongoing fight over redevelopment plans at the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses.
• Tenants advocates want the state budget deal to include stricter penalties for landlords who systemically harass rent stabilized tenants, amNY reports.

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