One in every eight children enrolled in the New York City public school system experienced homelessness in 2023, with overall rates of the unhoused remaining high in Brownsville and Bushwick in Brooklyn.
About 146,000 public school students were homeless during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a recent report from the nonprofit group Advocates for Children of New York (AFC).
The report states that the 2023/24 year was the ninth consecutive in which more than 100,000 thousand children were homeless, according to a press release.
The increase was attributed to an uptick in families living in city shelters and a 9% increase in students categorized as “doubled up," meaning they temporarily shared the housing of others because of a loss of housing or economic hardship.
Of the 146,000 students identified as homeless, 60,395 (41%) lived in shelters, more than 79,000 (54%) were "doubled up", and about 6,900 (5%) were living in hotels, motels, or other inadequate accommodations.
The Bronx maintained the highest rates, with nearly one in six students experiencing homelessness, followed closely by Manhattan. District 23 in Brownsville and District 32 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, also recorded cases of homelessness. Citywide, approximately 5% of students—about one in 20—spent time in shelters during the same period.
