New York City’s shame: A Record Setting Homeless Problem - 80% are Black or Hispanic

For those of us who take the subways and see them sleeping stretched out across the seats, or who walk past them laying on top of the grates on the sidewalk to keep warm, it is no surprise that a record number of people in New York City are homeless. In the year 2005, in one of the richest cities in the world, we now have more homeless people than we did during the Great Depression. In January, 36,600 adults and children were living in city shelters, according to a report from the Coalition for the Homeless. As the report points out, that is an 18 percent increase over January 2002, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and many other city officials took office. The numbers are astounding. Last year there were 38,218 homeless children in the city. Twenty-five percent of the homeless are Hispanic. Sixty percent are African-American. We have homeless people huddled in the shadow of luxury buildings in Manhattan where two-bedroom apartments start at $1 million. It`s an election year, and housing is a key issue. Two weeks ago more than 5,000 people gathered outside City Hall to rally for affordable housing. There are people suggesting solutions. A recent report from New York University said the city should require developers to set aside 10 to 20 percent of their housing units for lower-income residents in exchange for permission to build bigger buildings than the city now allows. The Bloomberg administration says this should be voluntary. Bloomberg has pledged to build 12,000 housing units in the next five years, but the Coalition for the Homeless says the city should build sooner. The city should use surplus funds from the Battery Park City Authority to create housing for homeless and low-income families and fix the problems with the homeless rent subsidy program. [more]

• New Yorkers march for affordable housing [more]