Overview
- Advocates for Children reports nearly 1 in 7 public school students experienced homelessness last year, with about 42% spending time in shelters, 53% doubled up with other families, and 5% unsheltered or in hotels.
- The tally includes roughly 65,000 students who stayed in city shelters, about 82,000 who were doubled up, and around 7,000 without stable housing, marking the highest total in a decade of rising counts.
- Advocates link the increase to longstanding housing affordability pressures and an influx of migrant families since 2022 that added an estimated 50,000 students in temporary housing.
- Educational impacts are severe: more than two-thirds of students in shelters were chronically absent, only 22% tested proficient in grades 3–8, and among high schoolers in shelter roughly 1 in 8 dropped out with a 62% four-year graduation rate.
- Operational gaps persist, with about 40% of families placed in shelters outside their school’s borough and repeated delays in arranging legally mandated transportation; the DOE cites 350+ dedicated staff, added supports, and a funding formula change as advocates press for interagency coordination and state aid adjustments.