As New York dealt with an ongoing housing crisis and an influx of migrants, state data shows that a record-high 146,000 students did not have permanent housing, The New York Times reports. That’s a 23% increase from the year before, according to Advocates for Children of New York, which on Monday released the data, gathered by the New York State Education Department. Almost all students reported homeless by schools were living either in shelters across the city or “doubled up” temporarily with friends or family, according to Advocates for Children, which focuses on supporting children from low-income families. Most families who end up in a shelter stay for about a year and a half. But, for roughly 40 percent of families placed in shelters, the city’s Department of Homeless Services has placed them in a borough other than the one where their children attend school. This was a primary cause of disruptions like absences: In the 2022-23 school years, over half of the city’s homeless students were chronically absent, missing at least one in 10 school days. That improved last year, said a spokesman for the Department of Homeless Services, who said that the department increased the rate of families living in the same borough as the school of their youngest child to 80%, with hopes of fewer educational disruptions.
The number of homeless students in New York City has topped 100,000 for nine straight years, according to state Education Department data. The figure has remained high amid a continuing housing crisis, with few apartments available and affordable options hard to find. In recent years, the city’s shelter system has been strained by an influx of migrants who arrived after crossing the southern border. Over 210,000 migrants have come to the city since 2022. Most were from Latin America, and others came from Africa and Asia. But that was just one factor, said Christine Quinn, who heads up Win, the city’s largest operator of homeless shelters. “They’re going to write this off as a migrant problem, and it’s not,” she said, referring to city officials. She added, “To just write it off really downplays the situation in a way that is both incorrect and dangerous.”