Name: Tohuratun Chowdhury
Class: Eng1121
Professor: hall
Research Memo: Statistics of homelessness in new york city
Homelessness has been a problem all throughout history. Wherever there have been people, there has been a person that doesn’t have a home. In some cultures it is look on as a freeing existence; freeing yourself from worldly problems and possessions. But in our culture it is viewed upon, for the most part, as a problem to society. In New York City, it has the highest homeless populations in the country, as of September 2004 there were 36,727 people living in shelters and welfare hotels with thousands more on the streets. This is a large significant number of people, but yet the city of New York along with Mayor Bloomberg is trying to get legislation to eject single males and females from the shelters and force them onto the streets where they then become vagrants and can be arrested. This seems like no solution for the homelessness problem.
The number of people experiencing homelessness in New York City has been growing, according to an annual report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report for 2018, released this week, found that on a single night in Jan. 2018, a total of 552,830 people experienced homelessness across the country. New York City accounted for 78,676 of those people, or just over 14 percent of the nation’s homeless.Per last year’s HUD report, the city’s homeless population totaled 76,501, meaning homelessness in New York City increased 2.8 percent from 2017.
In March 2019, there were 63,029 homeless people, including 15,193 homeless families with 22,412 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population.Over the course of City fiscal year 2018, 133,284 different homeless men, women, and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system. This includes over 45,600 different homeless New York City children.
Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions. Compared to homeless families, homeless single adults have much higher rates of serious mental illness, addiction disorders, and other severe health problems.
Research shows that African-American and Latino New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race.
