NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — More than 100,000 New York City public school students were homeless during the 2020-2021 school year — marking a massive, 42% increase since 2010, according to a new report.
The group Advocates for Children released their homeless survey Monday, detailing that almost 28,000 school kids were living in homeless shelters during a school year where the coronavirus pandemic forced students to learn remotely.
Another roughly 65,000 homeless students spent time living with friends or family, according to state data analyzed by the group. Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 students were reported living in other makeshift shelters, like cars and abandoned buildings.
Advocates for Children has stressed homelessness' devastating impacts on learning. In 2019, just 29% of students experiencing homelessness in grades 3-8 were reading proficiently — that's 20% lower than the rate for housed students in those grades, according to the group.
Advocates for Children and other groups on Monday called for Mayor-elect Eric Adams to formulate a concrete plan for students who are homeless.
“No child should be homeless, but while Mayor-elect Adams’ administration makes plans to tackle New York City’s housing and homelessness crisis, they must meet the immediate, daily educational needs of students who are homeless,” said Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children, in a statement.
They're asking for roughly 150 Department of Education staffers to be hired to create a network of shelter-based community coordinators. They're also asking for an inter-agency approach that addresses barriers to learning those students face, like transportation and chronic absanteeism.
"With the right support, schools can transform the lives of students who are homeless,” Sweet added.
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday said that the report counted students who were at any point homeless during the school year — suggesting that it could be missing progress the city has made.
"What we've seen with a lot of other information is something that also tells us a lot, which is that homelessness levels in shelters have actually gone down markedly," de Blasio said. "We have many fewer people in shelter than we did a year or two ago. We have many fewer people in shelter now than when I took office."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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