For 5th straight year, more than 100K NYC students are homeless

New data shows that more than 100,000 New York City students identified as homeless during the 2019-2020 school year.

News 12 Staff

Dec 4, 2020, 2:04 AM

Updated 1,440 days ago

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New data shows that more than 100,000 New York City students identified as homeless during the 2019-2020 school year.
Student homelessness in the city has topped 100,000 for five years in a row now. The nonprofit organization that released the numbers, Advocates for Children of New York, says it's larger than the public-school enrollment in the state of Vermont.
The data itself is from the New York state Education Department.
There roughly 1.1 million students in New York City public schools. With more than 111,000 students reported to be homeless, the ratio comes out to approximately 1 in 10. Looking at the Bronx alone -- the hardest hit borough -- the ratio is even higher at 1 in 6 students.
More than 32,700 students were in city shelters, also according to the data. About 3,000 were "doubled up" in temporary shared housing situations, and about 5,300 were unsheltered living in cars, parks or abandoned buildings.
Even before the pandemic, students facing homelessness already dealt with many obstacles trying to succeed in school.
Advocates for Children of New York is concerned that the pandemic has magnified those disparities.
"When schools closed, students lost what is a key source of stability for students experiencing homelessness," said Advocates for Children of New York policy director Randi Levine. "Many had difficulty with remote learning, and as a result we're very worried about the learning loss that has occurred."
They expect these numbers to go up even higher after this school year.