The population of New Yorkers living in streets and subways decreased slightly from the last prepandemic survey in 2020, according to a new city survey, but advocates for homeless people say the numbers are unreliable.
The 2022 estimate, released late Thursday, shows that about 3,400 people were unsheltered on the night of Jan. 25, down by 11 percent compared with 3,900 on Jan. 27, 2020. The numbers don’t include people living in shelters.
About 1,000 fewer people were tallied on Jan. 26, 2021, but officials said that apparent large drop was largely attributable to the coronavirus pandemic, which led to overnight subway closures between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., when many homeless people would otherwise seek refuge from harsh weather and congregate underground.
The city used different methods to survey the number of homeless people during the pandemic, making it hard to compare the new estimates to those obtained last year, said Jacquelyn Simone, a policy director with the Coalition for the Homeless, which provides services to people without shelter.
She said the change in methods required a “massive caveat.”
The new survey, called the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate, is the first released under Mayor Eric Adams as he seeks to fulfill campaign promises to make New York safer, in part, by moving unsheltered people off the subway system.
In February, Mr. Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a plan to deploy police officers and mental-health workers in New York City’s subway. Their task at the time was to move more than 1,000 homeless people who shelter there regularly into shelters or other arrangements.
A month later, Mr. Adams announced his plan to clear encampments where homeless people lived, a move that drew sharp criticism from advocates who said the city was doing little to help those it displaced. In April, Mr. Adams proposed a $171 million investment in homeless services, including 900 new specialized shelter beds in facilities with more services and, in some cases, private rooms.
This week, the mayor released a multiyear plan to address New York City’s growing housing crisis, saying he would make rentals and homeownership more affordable, help homeless people find permanent accommodations and invest in the New York City Housing Authority, the largest entity of its kind in the United States. Critics have said he is not investing enough to meaningfully address the problem.
