NYC Doubles Spending on Homelessness to $3.2 Billion Since 2014
- NYC Comptroller Stringer faults city agency on performance
- Spending and shelter population at all-time highs, report says
A homeless person sleeps on a sidewalk in New York City on May 17, 2019.
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New York City spending on homelessness has more than doubled to $3.2 billion since 2014, and the number of people in shelters hit an all-time high of 61,415 in January, Comptroller Scott Stringer said.
The figures offer no indication that the problem is getting less acute, according to a report Stringer released Wednesday. Emergency rent assistance requests jumped 34% between 2014 and 2018, with 1,400 more requests received through April this year than last year.