Homeless people in New York surpasses record-high 100,000 mark

The number of homeless people in New York City shelters has surpassed a record-high 100,000, New York Times reported.

The spike has sparked concerns as local governments grapple with handling the homeless population, the report added. City officials said that the homeless people count was spurred by an influx of migrants from the US southern border as there are now over 100,000 people in homeless shelters for the first time in history.

The number of migrants in shelters passed 50,000 a few days earlier while more than two-thirds of the number are families with children, the city’s deputy mayor said as per New York Times.

The report also claimed that the city has already spent over a billion dollars to house the migrants since they started arriving in large numbers in 2022. The figure is expected to rise to over four billion dollars by next year, it added.

As per the New York Post, among the 2,308 homeless people present during the NYC sweep between March 21, 2022, and November 30, 2022, only three people landed in permanent housing. Nearly 95 per cent of them didn’t even go to a shelter. The situation is no different in Los Angeles where ABC7 reported that a leaked email of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said that homeless people living at a West Hills encampment “will be arrested and all their belongings will be taken away by sanitation”.