A record 1 in 8 students were homeless in NYC last year: Report

One in 8 New York City students were homeless during the 2023-24 school year, according to a report from Advocates for Children of New York (AFC).

More than 146,000 students in the city lacked a reliable home at some point during the academic year, said the group, which compiled data from the New York State Education Department.

The record was a big increase from the year before: 23 percent.

“It is unconscionable that, year after year, tens of thousands of students in this City don’t have a permanent home,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of AFC’s Learners in Temporary Housing Project. “While the City works to help families find permanent housing, it must also focus more attention on helping students succeed in school. School can be the key to breaking the cycle of homelessness, but so many children, especially those in shelters, continue to fall behind.”

Homelessness can pose serious threats to academic success.

The group found more than two-thirds of students in shelters and 50 percent of those in temporary housing are chronically absent from school.

Students in a shelter drop out at a rate triple that of those with permanent housing, and children in grades 3 through 8 who don’t have a home were 20 percentage points lower in proficiency in English Language Arts than others.

The spike in homelessness has occurred as the city struggles with a housing crisis and an influx of migrants entering the area in the past few years.

“The City should take steps such as addressing delays in arranging transportation, ensuring families are placed in shelters near their children’s schools, getting rid of 60-day shelter limits, and addressing staffing shortages,” said Pringle.

The group is also pushing for lawmakers to redefine Foundation Aid, which is a formula for how much money schools gets based on their need but, the group says, does not account for the housing status of students at the district.

“Student homelessness has skyrocketed over the past decade, but right now, districts receive no additional per-pupil funding from the State to help meet the educational needs of students in temporary housing,” said Kim Sweet, executive director of AFC. “It’s critical that New York update the Foundation Aid formula to better support today’s students — including the roughly one in eight students in New York City who do not have a permanent place to call home.”