Frequently asked questions(FAQs)

1. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HOMELESS?

In a city of more than 8.3 million people, nearly one in every 106 New Yorkers is homeless — that’s nearly 80,000 men, women and children.* Every night, nearly 2,400 people sleep on the street, in the subway system or in other public spaces.

2. WHAT CAUSES HOMELESSNESS?

In most cases, multiple factors are involved. Common ones include: mental illness, substance abuse, untreated medical issues, traumatic events, violence and abuse, lack of affordable housing and difficulty sustaining employment.

3. WHO EXPERIENCES HOMELESSNESS?

People of all genders, races, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds experience homelessness. Among those sleeping in city shelters, 14,000 are single men, more than 4,000 are single women and 30,000 are adults or children in families.

4. Why do people sleep in the streets and not in shelter?

Homeless shelters are expensive institutions where homeless people are warehoused at great cost to the taxpayer, often run like jails. Last year alone, the city spent a billion dollars on shelter. Many homeless people have had bad experiences in shelters, including assault and robbery and routine demeaning treatment from staff. Homeless people are often sent to shelters that are a two-hour subway ride from their place of employment or friends and family, and the shelters rarely provide Metrocards so that people can get to their jobs. As of right now, the city has no housing program to help homeless people, so many more people would rather maintain their independence on the street or in precarious housing situations than enter a shelter where they’ll be institutionalized and exploited.

5. Why don’t homeless people just go back to school and get a good job?

Just like in the broader population, many people in the homeless community have graduated from high school and college, and some have advanced graduate degrees. Although access to quality education is a real issue in the low-income communities from which most homeless people come, the issue isn’t a lack of education—it’s the high cost of housing and the lack of decent-paying jobs in New York City.

6. Aren’t people homeless because they want to be?

Some homeless people might choose to live on the street rather than a shelter, because they’ve had bad experiences in a shelter. Others might choose to enter shelter because they’re fleeing domestic violence, overcrowding, abusive landlords, etc. People choose the best of bad options. The bottom line is that housing is so expensive in New York City that lots of people make choices that result in homelessness, and that’s what we’re trying to change—instead of punishing them for the choices they’ve made.

7. Aren’t most homeless people alcoholic, drug addicted, and/or mentally ill?

Like in the general population, lots of homeless people have those issues. The homeless population might have slightly higher rates of substance abuse and mental illness because poverty exacerbates those conditions, and because the system takes advantage of them, but it’s not accurate to say that it’s true of the majority of homeless people. Again—we believe the systemic causes of homelessness are more in need of urgent change than the individual ones.

8. Doesn’t the city already offer a lot to homeless people?

They only offer what they think will keep us dependent on them. The shelter system is a joke that cost NYC taxpayers a billion dollars last year alone, and keeps homeless people trapped in a system of profit and exploitation. While homeless people are grateful for food and clothing donations, we need real changes that will lead to housing and jobs, and stop the cops from violating peoples’ rights.

9. Why does the city spend so much on shelter, and not housing?

They are trying to keep us divided and broken. They are also in bed with the people that have access to the vacant property. New York City is also under a court order to provide shelter to homeless people, as a result of the Callahan and McCain lawsuits that go back to the 1980’s. While that fight was heroic, and shelters have helped hundreds of thousands of people stay off the streets, we believe that it has not changed the systemic causes of homelessness, and that we need to address the runaway cost of housing. What homeless people need is housing, not shelter.

10. Is there a solution to homelessness?

Yes. A home. To end homelessness, the nation will need an adequate supply of housing that is affordable to lower income households. Until that problem is solved, the homeless system will help people quickly return to housing, connect to employment, and get needed services and support.