A recent survey has found a 12 percent drop in the number of homeless people living on the streets of New York City compared with last year, the city announced on Thursday.
According to the federally mandated survey, called Homeless Outreach Population Estimate or Hope, 2,794 homeless people were living on the street in February 2016. That’s a 12 percent decrease from a year ago and a 36 percent drop compared with the first count in 2005, the city said.
This was the second year in a row a drop in street homelessness was recorded by the survey, according to city officials.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced plans to conduct nighttime street counts on a quarterly basis beginning in May.
“The city has made smart, strategic investments to improve our ability to identify and serve homeless New Yorkers. The decrease found by the HOPE count shows that progress is possible, and the new HOME-STAT dashboard [a tracking system] and our quarterly counts will ensure that we have accurate information about where and who the street homeless are, so we can continue the hard work of finding them a home,” de Blasio said in a statement.
Additionally, the survey found a 20 percent decrease in homeless people in the subway system – a first in the last seven years, according to the city.
The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate survey is mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
