Comptroller Lander Unveils New Dashboard to Track Shelter Population, Eviction, Housing Vouchers, & More

 

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander launched a new dashboard, Charting Homelessness in NYC, which tracks New York City’s shelter population — broken down by family type, age, and race, factors leading to homelessness like eviction filings, and shelter exits with housing vouchers. The dashboard will automatically update at regular intervals. 

“We urgently need to combat the homelessness crisis, and we have a much better chance of doing that effectively if we look clearly and consistently at the data,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “Looking squarely at eviction trends can focus the City’s efforts to prevent evictions and keep people in their homes in the first place. And looking at what’s effective in helping people exit shelter keeps our eye on the goal of making sure that every New Yorker has a stable and affordable place to live.” 

The dashboard tracks key metrics like: 

Shelter Population:   

• More than 120,000 individuals resided in City homeless shelters in February 2024, including asylum seekers and new arrivals.   
• The current shelter population sharply rose by 167% over the past two years, as tens of thousands of migrants from across the world have arrived in New York City seeking asylum.  
• Pandemic-era policies including eviction moratoria helped reduce the number of individuals in New York facing homelessness and living in shelters: In August 2021, there were 45,000 individuals in NYC Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelters, the lowest population in nearly ten years.  

Evictions:  

• Typical claims against renters in housing court for unpaid rent jumped from about $3,000 before March 2020 to more than $5,000 since July 2020. Renters who were unable to pay rent during the depths of the pandemic may account for this increase in back rent due.  
• Tenants in the Bronx face the largest number of eviction filings by landlords in housing court. Over the past several years, Central Brooklyn had the largest concentration of marshal-executed evictions, but in the past year marshal-executed evictions are more concentrated in the Bronx.  
• At its peak in September 2021, 73% of tenants facing eviction had legal representation, but the rate has declined to 38% of tenants with representation, as of January 2024.  

Shelter Exits:  

• Data showed the City helped 11% more people exit shelters through vouchers and other programs each month this fiscal year compared to last year.  
• Twenty-five percent more people are leaving shelter with CityFHEPS vouchers in FY 2024 compared to last fiscal year. Over the last few years, the City expanded eligibility criteria to more single adult households and increased payment standards to match the rent amounts used in the Federal Section 8 voucher payments. These reforms expanded the scope and expense of the CityFHEPs program, making it easier for some households to find apartments. Although the City failed to adequately budget for these cost increases, housing vouchers remain a cost effective way to provide housing. To rapidly rehouse families currently living in shelter, the State should expand vouchers through the passage of HAVP. 
• However, the number of individuals who moved from shelters into NYCHA housing is at its lowest level in a decade, an 80% drop in monthly exits since FY 2015.    

In August 2021 there were 45,000 individuals in DHS shelters, the lowest daily population in nearly ten years, but then the pandemic-era eviction moratorium came to an end and eviction filings resumed. At the same time, New York City began to receive tens of thousands of new asylum seekers in the summer of 2022, many of whom have sought refuge in City shelters. The combination of these factors caused the shelter population to balloon over the past two years, with the City providing some form of shelter and services to over 120,000 individuals each night.  

With the end of eviction moratoria and a shrinking supply of affordable homes, data show renters are now facing the economic costs of the pandemic.  The new data dashboard allows for detailed monitoring of cases filed against tenants in housing court to track these changes. 

The Office of the New York City Comptroller developed this dashboard to help New Yorkers track homelessness trends and to monitor the City’s efforts to help more residents move out of shelter into stable housing. The City needs many solutions to help every New Yorker have a safe, stable, and decent place to live. Last summer, the Comptroller’s office published an audit review of pathways in and out of shelter as well as a policy report on Housing First, which recommends various approaches to reduce street homelessness. 

View the new dashboard Charting Homelessness in NYC here.