Within the early morning of Jan. 24, homeless outreach staff and volunteers will fan out throughout town and into the subway system to count the variety of New Yorkers who name the streets and subways house.
The citywide count has occurred yearly since 2005 and helps town tailor its response on how to deal with the wants of its poorest residents. Nevertheless it’s not with out controversy and pushback from homeless advocates, who say the strategy town makes use of has its limitations and produces an unreliable estimate. This 12 months’s survey guarantees to be completely different partly as a result of volunteers will rejoin outreach staff after being barred from collaborating in 2021 and 2022 due to pandemic restrictions.
From midnight to 4 a.m., outreach staff and volunteers will head to designated areas all through the 5 boroughs to method people on the street and within the subway, ask the place these people are sleeping that night time, and document their responses.
The variety of homeless individuals dwelling on town’s streets, within the subways and in different public locations is only a small fraction of town’s total homeless inhabitants. In 2022, town estimated that 3,439 homeless individuals have been residing in public areas.
As of Jan. 8, there have been 67,880 homeless kids and adults dwelling in shelters managed by town’s Division of Homeless Companies and 1000’s extra dwelling in shelters managed by different metropolis companies.
This 12 months, town is going through a document variety of homeless individuals dwelling in shelters. Because the spring, busloads of migrants in search of asylum started exhibiting up in New York Metropolis, overwhelming the already overburdened shelter system.
Right here’s what you need to know forward of the count on the finish of the month.
What is the Homeless Outreach Inhabitants Estimate survey?
Began in 2005, the HOPE survey — also called the HOPE count— is an annual survey of the street homeless inhabitants in New York Metropolis. It isn’t a literal count of each homeless particular person dwelling on metropolis streets, within the subways and different public areas. It’s a point-in-time sampling of homeless individuals dwelling in sure neighborhoods and sure streets within the 5 boroughs.
How does it work?
The town sends outreach staff and volunteers to neighborhoods the place homeless persons are identified to dwell, in addition to random areas, stated Edith Kealey, the manager analysis director at Division of Social Companies’ Workplace of Analysis and Analysis, town company that manages the operation. Additionally they go into subway stations and end-of-the line stations to speak to each one that stays within the subway vehicles.
“We are both capturing people who are in the station as well as people who are potentially sleeping on the train,” she stated.
The town Division of Homeless Companies then takes the uncooked count and applies a system and makes changes to give you an estimate of the street homeless inhabitants for that single night time in January. The U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth requires that the point-in-time estimates are performed over the past 10 days of January and compile the findings right into a yearly report for Congress, which got here out final month.
Why is the count achieved?
Primarily, it is so town could make its case to the federal authorities for funding.
The tally is required by HUD for town to receive federal cash to assist pay for homeless providers and to assist metropolis officers resolve the place to allocate assets to help town’s poorest residents.
When will we see the estimate?
The town sometimes releases the estimate within the spring or summer season.
Final 12 months the survey was performed on Jan. 25 and the outcomes have been launched in June. The town estimated there have been 3,439 homeless individuals sleeping on the streets and in public areas, a quantity nearer to pre-pandemic ranges.
In 2021, on the top of the pandemic, town estimated there have been 2,376 homeless individuals dwelling in public areas. The street homeless inhabitants was decrease that 12 months, advocates stated, as a result of town had rented motels in the course of the COVID-19 disaster as emergency housing was utilized to sluggish the unfold of the virus. Advocates stated some homeless individuals who beforehand rejected town’s supply to put them in congregate shelters accepted lodge rooms as an alternative.
Nationally, a modest improve of .3% within the quantity of people that have been street homeless final January in contrast to 2020 reveals that rental help insurance policies and different pandemic-spurred incentives efficiently stored individuals of their houses in the course of the disaster, the Biden administration stated final month.
Is there pushback over the count?
Homeless advocates have lengthy criticized the HOPE survey as an enormous undercount of town’s street homeless inhabitants, and say the estimate produces a distorted portrait of street homelessness and masks the true scale of the disaster.
The town depends on a flawed methodology, in accordance to the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group. For instance, homeless individuals who sleep in financial institution vestibules or in fast-food eating places which might be open 24 hours aren’t counted as a result of canvassers aren’t allowed to go on non-public property.
“So, we know that there are many people who are homeless who are not being counted as part of this survey because of those methodological limitations,” stated Jacquelyn Simone, director of the Coalition for the Homeless.
Homeless individuals who dwell in public areas attempt to mix in to keep away from detection as a survival approach, Simone added. And getting an correct estimate is even tougher, she stated, in an period when Mayor Eric Adams is utilizing the NYPD to take away homeless individuals from the subways and has made breaking apart homeless encampments a precedence for his administration.
“Many people have been pushed from the more visible areas to less visible areas, and they have been trying to hide and avoid detection so that can actually make the work of the HOPE volunteers harder because people are intentionally trying to avoid interacting with any kind of public officials,” Simone stated.
Then, there may be the climate.
When it is bitterly chilly — because it often is in January — some homeless people might sleep in a metropolis shelter for the night time or head indoors, the place volunteers aren’t in a position to count them.
Kealey defended the DSS’ strategies, saying the survey produces a “robust” response and the outcomes permit town to have a look at shifts and traits of the street homeless inhabitants over time.
“That is just one number that gives one particular insight into the challenge of homelessness in the city,” stated Kealey. “We all acknowledge that’s not the whole story.”
The town estimates that greater than half of homeless individuals discover shelter within the subway system, Kealey stated. Whereas some homeless people sleep in financial institution vestibules, she stated they make up a small proportion of the street homeless inhabitants.
“At the margins that I think would not be likely to really shift our estimates substantially,” Kealey stated.
Is there a greater manner to count the street homeless inhabitants?
Some advocates say a greater manner to get an estimate is to go instantly to homeless service suppliers and have them log info over a time period, than on a single night time.
For example, town might survey the variety of homeless individuals who use drop-in facilities, locations the place homeless people can go to get sizzling meals, take a bathe or sleep for the night time.
In accordance to the City Justice Middle, a authorized providers and advocacy group, town might use homeless service suppliers to assist inform a extra correct count.
The town pays outreach suppliers to assist convey homeless people dwelling on the streets into shelters, and suppliers report the variety of contacts they make with homeless individuals dwelling in public areas to DHS. Advocates say town might ask suppliers to report the variety of people they assisted.
However that’s simpler stated than achieved…
Craig Hughes, a senior social employee on the Security Internet Challenge on the City Justice Middle, stated it’s not within the metropolis’s curiosity to use a distinct methodology to get a extra dependable variety of individuals dwelling in public areas as a result of that might possible imply a better quantity.
“When the city puts HOPE numbers out, it’s really a political project,” stated Hughes. “It’s about presenting an image of homelessness that isn’t realistically representative of the number of people living on the street and tends to be used by each administration as a way to sort of emphasize that their approach to homelessness is working in one way or another.”
Kealey defended town’s methodology, noting that no different main metropolis makes use of the service-based mannequin to count the street homeless inhabitants.
“I’m not convinced that a service-based approach would yield better numbers than the ones that we get through our existing approach, which, as we said, is endorsed by HUD as a national model,” she stated.