Soaring rents and home prices in the last decade have thrown much of the metropolitan region into a full-blown affordability crisis. One of its most troubling consequences is the growth in homelessness, most acutely felt in New York City.
Every January, communities around the country conduct a survey of the homeless population. The results from January 2016 reveal just how concentrated the problem is in the city, but also how longstanding shelter requirements within the five boroughs mean that a smaller share of its homeless population is sleeping on the street.
New York City is an exponentially worse situation than in the rest of the region when it comes to homelessness. Despite containing just over a third of the region’s population, it contains 83% of the region’s homeless population. Its rate of homelessness is 870 people per 100,000, four times the next highest rate, which is found in New Jersey’s Essex County, and eight times the average rate for the rest of the metropolitan region.
Source: United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2016 Homeless Populations and Subpopulations Reports
Homelessness among children is an even worse problem. New York City has 87% of the region’s homeless children, and more than 25,000 children in New York City were homeless in January. That’s one out every 70 children in New York City.
Shelter matters
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development separates the homeless into two categories. sheltered and unsheltered. Sheltered means people in emergency shelter or transient housing. Unsheltered means people sleeping on the street or in other places not suitable for safe habitation.
Most homeless individuals are sheltered, but some aren’t. This map shows what percentage of the homeless are unsheltered throughout the region.
Source: United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2016 Homeless Populations and Subpopulations Reports
It isn’t a coincidence that a larger ratio of people are unsheltered in New Jersey than in New York. In 1979, the New York State Supreme Court ruled that the homeless have a legal right to shelter, and New York has been bound by a consent decree to shelter homeless men since 1981, and homeless women and children since 1983. Today, this legal right can be seen in the numbers: While Northern New Jersey only has about 10% more homeless individuals than the suburban counties of New York State, Northern New Jersey has four times the number of unsheltered homeless.
Initiatives make a difference
Four counties in the metropolitan region participate in an effort called Built for Zero, which works to end chronic and veteran homelessness. These are the three southwestern Connecticut counties in the metropolitan region (Connecticut participates as a state) and Bergen County, New Jersey. Connecticut also has an initiative called Opening Doors CT, which seeks to end homelessness in the state overall. Partnership for Strong Communities, a civic group that assists RPA’s community engagement process in Connecticut, plays a key role in both efforts.
Removing New York City as an outlier, we can compare the relative success in addressing homelessness of the counties that participate in Built for Zero vs. those that don’t, below.
Providing safe and stable housing for everyone in the metropolitan region will be a big part of RPA’s fourth regional plan. Nobody should have to worry about not having a place to call home, especially children. If you want to help in your area this winter, you can look up and donate to your local homeless shelter provider here. There also are state- and citywide organizations that work to end homelessness. Here are a few:
Connecticut
Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness
New Jersey
New Jersey Coalition to End Homelessness
New York
Photo Credit: thusihaveseen
