The Big Apple’s migrant crisis sparked an “unprecedented” increase in the number of people living in taxpayer-funded homeless shelters, according to a City Hall report released Tuesday.
The daily average shelter population surged 20.8% — to 54,838 — during the first four months of fiscal 2023, which began July 1, the Preliminary Mayor’s Management Report for February said.
That’s up from an average of 45,381 during the same time in fiscal 2022, with the report saying the spike was “driven by an unprecedented increase in entrants, primarily related to the influx of asylum seekers from the southern United States border.”
The increase — which followed two successive years of declines — was even greater when combined with the final months of fiscal 2022 when the flood of migrants to the city began.
Those figures showed that the number of families with children who entered the shelter system spiked 41.8% while the number of single adults more than doubled, by 104.7%, according to the report.
“This rapid increase in entries resulted in growth of 26.9% in the families with children census and of 9.5% the single adult census, despite increases in exits to permanent housing over that same period,” the report said.
But the number of families receiving welfare benefits actually declined from 78.8% to 67.6% during July through October, compared to the same period a year ago.
“Partly this is a result of families remaining in conditional eligibility status for longer periods, contributing to a delay in the public assistance application process, as well as to the unprecedented increase in entries of asylum seekers,” the report said.
The rate of “serious and violent incidents” among shelter residents also dropped in all three categories of shelters: single adults, adult families and families with children.
“The decline of serious incidents within the families with children system was attributable to the decrease in COVID-19-related incidents, including quarantining of both staff and clients,” the report said.
“Within the single adult shelter system, the decrease in serious incidents was in large part due to a decrease in facility-related incidents — including heating, water and electrical failures that last more than four hours.”
The time period covered by the report includes the suicide of a despondent migrant mom from Colombia who hanged herself from a shower rod with an electrical cord inside a Queens homeless shelter on Sept. 18.
Mayor Eric Adams has said that the city will likely spend as much as $2 billion to provide shelter and other services to the migrant population, and he’s repeatedly called on President Biden’s administration to cough up at least $1 billion.
On Tuesday, Adams spoke privately with Biden following the president’s appearance in New York City, and they agreed to set a date to discuss the matter further, a source told The Post.
Earlier this month, Adams also made an “emergency mutual aid request” for Gov. Kathy Hochul to immediately provide housing for an initial 500 migrants, saying the city was “at our breaking point.”
As of Sunday, the estimated migrant population was 43,200, with 28,200 living in 86 emergency shelters and processing centers, according to City Hall.
Hochul — who’s set to unveil her proposed budget for fiscal 2023-2024 on Wednesday — has yet to publicly respond beyond saying that she’s been helping Adams “for many months and will continue to give him support.”
report By Bernadette Hogan and Bruce Golding January 31, 2023