HOMELESS An Overview

Homelessness not a new social phenomenon. Dates back to the colonial era. Great Depression to find another period in New York history when homelessness such a routine, permanent, visible feature of urban life. Historical pockets of street homelessness: the Bowery and other “skid row” districts. First manifestation of modern homelessness in NYC: thousands of homeless men sleeping in parks, on sidewalks, in transportation terminals, and in other public spaces in the late 1970s. Homeless more visible in the city by the end of the 1970s.

No legal “right to shelter” for homeless New Yorkers. Notorious Municipal Shelter on East Third Street at the Bowery: deplorable conditions, tuberculosis and other contagious diseases. Shortage of shelter beds, by the late 1970s as many as 250 men slept each night on the floor of the Municipal Shelter’s infamous lobby, the “Big Room.”

In August 1981, Callahan v. Carey: The City and State to provide shelter and board to all homeless men who met the need standard for welfare or who were homeless “by reason of physical, mental, or social dysfunction.” In 1983 right to shelter extended to homeless women under Eldredge v. Koch lawsuit, and later to homeless families with children by McCain lawsuit, filed by the Legal Aid Society.

Factors for homelessness residential dislocation, shortage of inexpensive housing, inflation in the general cost of housing. changes in labor market (industry  service economy), inequality and wage polarization, precarious jobs, unemployment. government cutbacks, erosion of public welfare benefits (AFDC, SSI state supplemental payments, General Assistance, food stamps).

Roots of modern homelessness: dramatic changes in NYC’s housing stock (cheap housing for the poor, large reduction of single-room housing units), as well as mental-health policies adopted by State government in 1950s. In 1950s State adopts policy of “deinstitutionalization” for thousands of mentally ill patients of State facilities  discharge of tens of thousands of mentally ill individuals from upstate facilities to NYC communities.

1970s: number of poor renter households in NYC exceeded number of low-cost rental units. Rents increased at a much faster rate than other consumer prices, while the incomes of the poorest NYC households declined. Cutbacks in government housing assistance: a major role in shaping NYC’s housing problems. Since 1970s the Federal, State, and City governments have abandoned traditional role in financing the development of new housing and providing vital housing assistance for the poorest households.

Majority of homeless single adults are men, although the homeless single women’s population has increased since the early 1980s. In 2002 women: 23% of the single adult shelter census, compared with 11% in Blacks and Latinos disproportionately represented among homeless single adults. All homeless adults (municipal shelter system) from 1988 through 1992: 62% were black and 24% were Latino, while only 8% were white (Culhane et al. 1998).

After declining from late 1980s, homeless families rose during early 1990s economic recession and then remained at high levels throughout the decade. From 1998 through 2002 the family shelter population skyrocketed reaching all-time record levels. The family shelter population more than doubled, growing from 4,400 families sheltered nightly at the beginning of 1998 to 9,100 families (30,000 children and adults) lodged nightly at the end of 2002 (NYC Department of Homeless Services, shelter census reports).

In 1991, NY’s Mayor Dinkins announced a new homeless initiative that would scatter shelters throughout five boroughs. Reaction of the head of the City Council Peter Vallone: “You’re unnecessarily frightening all of the people of this city and it doesn’t make sense. It’s spreading homelessness and hopelessness throughout. It’s almost as if you’re saying we have a serious disease and we’ll spread it so everybody will suffer from it.” Dinkins abandoned the proposals.

Cutbacks in housing assistance in second half of the 1990s: major cause of rising homelessness among families. Under Giuliani Administration, number of total housing placements from the family shelter system reduced by 34%, from 5,466 in 1994 to 3,614 in 2002 (City of New York, Mayor’s Management Report). Majority of homeless families: single-parent, female- headed households, average family size of three persons. Over a five-year period ( ) 63% of homeless families were black, 32% were Latino, 3% were Asian/other race, and 2% were white (Culhane et al, 1998).

By the end of 2002 NYC’s homeless shelter population stood at all-time record levels. More than 38,000 New Yorkers, including 16,600 children, each night in municipal shelter system, compared to 30,000 a year earlier and 28,700 in the peak year of the 1980s. Number of homeless children and families doubled over a four-year period, with families to comprise nearly 80% of shelter population. Number of homeless single adults in shelters reached highest level since More New Yorkers were in need of emergency shelter than at any time since the Great Depression.