New York's Homelessness Worst Since The Great Depression

State and local governments nationwide have struggled to accommodate a homeless population that has changed in recent years - now including large numbers of families with young children. As the WSJ reports, more than 21,000 children - an unprecedented 1% of the city's youth - slept each night in a city shelter in January, an increase of 22% in the past year; as homeless families now spend more than a year in a shelter, on average, for the first time since 1987.

New York City has seen one of the steepest increases in homeless families in the past decade, advocates said, growing 73% since 2002, and "is facing a homeless crisis worse than any time since the Great Depression."

Homeless advocates said the Obama administration has focused on more visible problems, such as those sleeping on the streets, taking resources away from families. The steep rise has reignited questions about whether New York's economic turnaround of the past two decades has helped the city's poorest residents as they note (despite today's Dow record highs), "the economy is nowhere near where it was." Read more >>

Panhandlers now line NY city streets

New York City has a rising homeless population; it is up nearly 18 percent since 2011. Panhandlers now line city streets, including in Union Square. "I was married, had a wife, house, car, the whole nine yards, middle class," Paul Santo said, "and lost everything."

Santo said he now lives just off 14th Street. Every day he puts up a sign asking for cash. "I've got appointments to try and better my life," he said. "Just getting on a train is $2.25." Amy Moreno, a panhandler, said: "I ask for donations. I want to rent a room to get off the street before winter."

Moreno said she sleeps in Union Square twice a week. The other nights, she stays with friends. She makes bracelets for those who give her donations. "It goes towards the beads, it goes towards my daily food intake," she said.

Patrick Markee, of the Coalition for the Homeless, said: "A lot of times those folks are a couple of paychecks away from becoming homeless. You might see people panhandling who are still in a precarious housing situation, they might just need those few extra dollars to get by." Read more >>