Tackling Homelessness at its Roots:

Drivers of Homelessness

In the NYC shelter population, 63% of residents are adults and 37% are children and teenagers. There are several drivers contributing to homelessness, broadly stemming from current inequality and a legacy of oppression in NYC. This website focuses on some of the specific drivers of housing insecurity behind these systems, drawing from findings in the January 2020 City Council report, Our Homelessness Crisis: A Case for Change. For example, factors such as rent burden and eviction, account for an estimated 33% of the city’s homeless population, and are one of the most important reasons why New York City adults experience homelessness. The main reasons for experiencing homelessness amongst children and teenagers are domestic violence and family dynamics. 37% of people experiencing homelessness choose to leave homes due to domestic violence, and nearly two-thirds of these people are children and teenagers. Meanwhile, 10% of people experience homelessness as a result of other family dynamics including substance abuse, neglect at home, mental illness, and gender identity issues. Some other drivers for adult homelessness include physical care, jail release, and migration. Understanding the conditions that may lead to housing insecurity will allow the public and policymakers to better serve and protect New York City’s most vulnerable residents.

Under the current COVID-19 crisis, the crowded conditions in shelters have made residents vulnerable to infection. Furthermore, the high rate of unemployment citywide may exacerbate homelessness. Without enough savings, low-income people are particularly vulnerable to homelessness, and the instability caused by COVID-19 may exacerbate drivers of homelessness like rent burden, domestic violence, and poverty. populations. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that COVID-19-related unemployment will decrease any time soon. Temporary policies, such as eviction order suspensions, may not work well in the long term. Therefore, this website will analyze potential drivers of homelessness in NYC in detail, while also diving into housing policies over the years to provide possible solutions

Spatial Risk Diagram

For preventive measures to be implemented effectively, the problem of homelessness needs to be identified effectively. This map shows a risk index created for homelessness at the census tract level. It shows that some areas are more prone to residents becoming homeless based on certain characteristics.

A series of factors are included to create this index, which articulate potential drivers of homelessness that were identified in the Our Homelessness Crisis report. These factors include rent burden (percentage of income spent on rent), unemployment rate, disability, poor mental and physical health, prevalence of binge drinking, number of evictions filed. Data available for these factors is from the year 2018. A simple average of each factor is taken to give equal weight to each factor, as the exact weight of each factor is unknown and needs further exploration.

Finally, the risk index for each tract is created by assuming a hypothetical census tract that has the worst possible value for each risk factor. Each census tract is ranked based on the similarity with the hypothetical census tract, creating a relative risk index for each census tract in New York City. Ranking 1 represents the complete match with the hypothetical census tract and is therefore the highest risk area, whereas 2,141 represents the least close match with the hypothetical tract and is the area where residents are least likely to experience homelessness.

Housing Policies & Rent Burden Over the History

On December 5, 1979, in a landmark decision, the New York State Supreme Court ordered the City and State to provide shelter for homeless men. After two years of negotiation, the court decision Callahan v. Carey established the right to shelter in New York City. In the decades that followed, tackling the pervasive problem of homelessness spanned through mayors from across the political spectrum—from Dinkins’s focus on permanent shelter to Guiliani’s more punitive approach. In the 21st Century, Bloomberg sharpened regulation, while de Blasio shifted the conversation from a right to shelter to a right to housing.

However, New York City’s homelessness problem continues to grow; today New Yorkers are looking for innovative solutions to provide permanent shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Looking at the percent change from 2006 to 2016, the Great Recession caused wages to fall and homelessness to rise. Yet, as the economy recovered, the plight of homeless New Yorkers did not. Political leaders and activists point to a rise in inequality and lack of access to opportunity in New York City, particularly focusing on the inadequate amount of affordable housing in an increasingly unaffordable housing market.

“We can’t solve homelessness without addressing the affordability and stability crisis,” said Giselle Routhier, policy director at Coalition for the Homeless.