Posted on March 10, 2014 by Sheila Langan in Irish Central Irish Central, By Sheila Langan Each night, there are close to 52,000 homeless people in New York City’s shelter system – 22,000 of them children. That’s the highest level of homelessness in the city’s modern history. One of their greatest sources of both advocacy and support is the Coalition for the Homeless, the nation’s longest-standing organization of its kind.