I grew up in suburban New York in a small beach town south of the city, clad with a laid-back surfer mentality and lacking the hustle and bustle of New York City. Growing up, walking around New York City felt like an entirely different world: hundreds of people in a rush to get somewhere, towering buildings, and large glowing lights in every direction. As I got older I started to frequent the city more often, and I began to realize that there was more to my city than just its unmatched beauty and endless energy. There were people sleeping on stoops, abandoned shopping carts full of cardboard boxes and ratted blankets and adults who covered their shivering children and stared up at me. I became starkly aware that New York, along with its immense beauty and worldwide respect, was also plagued by increasing levels of homelessness. For the last decade, New York has had the highest percentage of homelessness, which has increased by 43% since 2007, followed only by the next state I would come to live in: California.
In January 2018 I moved to San Francisco, California. SF is a tech epicenter and a New York competitor on many levels, including its level of homelessness. After just a few weeks of living here I quickly realized that there are noticeable differences between the homeless population in San Francisco: in SF the homeless feel more aggressive, loud, and much more evident, with a seemingly higher amount of people on the streets. These observations led to a growing curiosity about the distinction between the two, and so began my analysis of New York and California’s homeless populations.

After retrieving data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development I sought out to compare different metrics about their homeless populations. The following are insights derived from analysis of this data collected during what are known as Point-In-Time counts, a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January (for more information please see the HUD website which explains completely all the different terms and details surrounding these counts and provides a complete breakdown of all PIT counts from 2007-2017).
In 2017 about 95% of New York’s homeless population was sheltered, whereas California’s estimated sheltered homeless population was about 32%. Already differences began to unfold, and with almost 70% of California’s homeless population unsheltered (vs only 5% in New York) it makes sense why SF feels so much more populated by homeless persons. I then sought out to determine whether there were differences in the demographics of these two groups (sheltered and unsheltered). I found that California has a much higher rate of homeless individuals (84%) than homeless families (16%). On the other hand, New York has a higher rate of homeless families (58%) than individuals (42%). From these findings, I looked deeper into whether the rate of being sheltered differed between individuals and families. In 2017 the data displayed that 82% of California’s homeless families are sheltered, but only about 20% of homeless individuals are sheltered. In New York, 99% of homeless families are sheltered and 88% of homeless individuals are sheltered.
Overall, New York has a much higher rate of sheltered homeless persons. One large factor I believe affects this difference is the weather. New York’s homeless population is more likely to seek out shelter options due to freezing weather, and to avoid freezing to death while trying to survive an unsheltered winter. The rate of sheltered homeless (30%) in California may be so much lower than New York’s (95%) because harsh weather conditions do not threaten their lives and it is easier to survive unsheltered in a moderate/warm climate.
Both states had increased rates of sheltered homeless families versus sheltered homeless individuals, which led me to the insight that adults with children are more likely to seek help from shelters because they need to provide for themselves and for their children. Homeless individuals can more easily survive without shelters than homeless families because they need not share resources with other people.
Lack of affordable housing has increased levels of homelessness in both states. With further research, I found that in 2016 California lawmakers approved a $2-Billion dollar bond to help finance new, more affordable and lower quality housing for the homeless, yet since then none of that money has been put towards its true purpose because the money is still caught in court details. From this, I derived the insight that California’s slow progress towards financing affordable, lower quality housing contributes largely to the rate of unsheltered homeless. Regarding New York, it seems that from the spring of 2016 through November 2017 the Department of Homeless Services, NYPD, Agency partners, and not-for-profit social service providers have collaborated to combat New York City’s unsheltered homeless. It seems that new investments in outreach programs, increased dedicated shelter capacity, and increased numbers of outreach staff have led to the increased transition of homeless New Yorkers off the streets and into more stable housing or programs.