Posted on September 10, 2012 by GISELLE ROUTHIER Last night, 19,000 children slept in New York City shelters—a remarkable 18 percent increase over last year. The New York Daily News reported yesterday on the record number of homeless kids. Francheska Luciano, a 14-year-old girl living in a shelter with her family describes how living in a shelter is hard on her younger siblings: “they’re young, they have no childhood, they don’t sleep well. It’s not fair to them.” And with no housing assistance in place to help families move out of shelter and into permanent housing, the City is on track to reach the unthinkable milestone of 20,000 homeless kids before year’s end. In response to the article, the Coalition for the Homeless released the following statement: “Mayor Bloomberg’s continued refusal to provide effective housing aid to homeless families has led us past another grim milestone — a record 19,000 children sleeping in the city’s shelters each night. New York City is now on pace to see 20,000 homeless children before the end of the year, a number once unthinkable just a few years ago.” “Study after study show that children who become homeless do worse in school as well as suffer in their physical and mental health development. This administration is responsible for this tragedy by closing the door to programs that past Mayors of both parties have successfully used to move thousands of homeless families into permanent, affordable homes.”
