New York City is now spending about $81,000 per homeless person on street-level services, even as the homeless population has grown far more slowly over the same period, according to a new state comptroller report.
Total spending reached roughly $368 million last year and is projected to climb to about $456 million by fiscal year 2026. The increases have far outpaced the roughly 26 percent rise in the number of homeless people living on the streets, with no clear explanation in the report for what the additional spending is achieving.
The state comptroller’s office says city spending on street homeless programs has more than tripled since 2019, when New York spent about $102 million on those services. Over the same period, the street homeless population rose from roughly 3,588 people to about 4,504.
“It’s a clarion call to make sure every dollar counts,” former City Comptroller Scott Stringer said. “You must understand where the money is going.”
New York City’s total homeless population has grown by about 78 percent since 2019 to roughly 140,000 people, while the city provides shelter to about 97 percent of that population. That scale makes the results on the street harder to ignore.
The report shows spending rising each year, with the share of the Department of Homeless Services budget devoted to street homelessness pushing into double digits by 2026.
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The report points to expanded use of low-barrier beds and drop-in centers as a driver of rising costs. Those programs offer meals, showers, and short-term shelter while allowing people to come and go, but the city does not break out in its financial reporting how much money is going to which services. The report does not show which programs are working and which are simply absorbing more cash.
At roughly $81,000 per person, the city is now spending at a level comparable to the median household income. The figure is also nearly double what New York City spends per public school student, yet the number of people living on the streets has continued to rise.
“The escalation in spending driven by the increase in the homeless population, however, merits greater focus on where resources are going and what services are working,” the report states
City data shows placements into housing have increased sharply, rising more than 400 percent over several years. The report notes that those figures do not distinguish between permanent and temporary placements and do not track how long individuals remain housed, leaving the city unable to show whether those placements are lasting.
The comptroller’s office cites both the COVID pandemic and the migrant influx as contributing factors. It also notes that while the city collects extensive data on services, it has not shown clearly whether those programs are moving people into shelter and then into permanent housing.
New York City is on track to spend nearly half a billion dollars a year on street homelessness. City Hall has turned public failure into a budget line item, and the streets are still full of the proof.
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