NY Daily News: The homeless population has risen to an all-time high, forcing the de Blasio administration to house desperate families in decrepit tenements red-flagged by the city’s own inspectors as hazardous.
Since he arrived at City Hall pledging to turn things around, Mayor de Blasio has struggled to confront a long-intractable problem that has only gotten worse.
By mid-December, the homeless census reached a record 59,068 — nearly the population of Utica, city records show. The Coalition for the Homeless says it peaked even higher at 60,352. The homeless count, according to the city and the coalition, includes 25,000 children. And it represents a 10% jump from the 53,615 in shelters on de Blasio’s Inauguration Day.
Seattle mayor Ed Murray
King5.com: King Co. homeless population up by more than 20 percent.
“We are really documenting…the scope of homelessness in our community and the unmet need that we strongly believe must be met with more shelter, affordable housing and services for our neighbors who are spending tonight cold and wet and scared,” said Alison Eisinger, director of the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness. Collation volunteers look for people sleeping in business doorways, under park benches or perhaps in tents throughout the county. In 2014, volunteers counted 3,123 people on the streets. The final number for the 2015 count was 3,772, according to the coalition. That’s a 20.8 percent increase from 2014.
DCG