Posted on December 30, 2024 The Coalition for the Homeless responds to Jason DeParle’s piece, Migrants and End of Covid Restrictions Fuel Jump in Homelessness, published in The New York Times on December 27, 2024. To the editors, Jason DeParle’s article leaves readers with two incorrect impressions: (1) that domestic homelessness is not increasing and ; (2)that the Housing First approach to addressing homelessness is widely practiced throughout the country – and so, conservatives errantly allege, the increase in homelessness is evidence of the model’s failure. To see why, look at New York City. As cited in our State of the Homeless 2024 report, in the two-year period from March 2022, when the surge in new arrivals began in NYC, to April 2024, NYC’s data shows that the number of non-migrant, longer-term New Yorkers who entered the shelter system increased by 19 percent, or more than 10,000 people. This increase had nothing to do with migrants coming to the U.S., but was instead driven by the severe lack of affordable housing for people at the lowest end of the economic spectrum. The majority of those in NYC shelters are families, and about a third of those families are employed, but simply can’t find apartments they can afford. It also makes no sense to attribute the increase in homelessness in New York to the failure of Housing First. Housing First is a form of supportive housing targeted primarily at those with psychiatric and physical disabilities, and has been used with great success for homeless vets. It is also proven to work for other types of homeless households – and not just in the U.S. (Helsinki fully embraced the model to great success). Despite such success, Housing First is (sadly) virtually non-existent in NYC today, nor is it anywhere close to national policy. Regardless, the significant number of homeless families with children is evidence how of broad-based this crisis is, and how it is increasing because people simply can’t afford housing. The country essentially solved homelessness for veterans because they were deemed “worthy.” Shouldn’t all of us be deemed worthy?
