Over the last five years, 20,000 more people have been recorded as homeless in New York City, DNAinfo reports that the worsening crisis has lead to more shelters, with their residency up 60% from 2009 and 1,000 more people since the beginning of the year. There are now 54,841 people living in homeless shelters in the city and 23,000 of them are children.
Experts are blaming the spike on the critical decrease of affordable housing in the city. Mayor de Blasio’s ten year plan to construct and mend 200,000 affordable housing units is expected to ease the burden. The Department of Homeless Services has created several initiatives to help with the immediate situation, including a program for the working homeless and for victims of domestic abuse. (Photo: Euran Slorach)
