August 2017 report by the Citizens’ Commission for Children
Aug. 25, 2017 By Nathaly Pesantez
The number of families with children from the western Queens neighborhood of Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Corona who have entered homeless shelters has gone up in recent years, according to a newly released report on homelessness in the city.
According to the study by the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York, which takes a look at homelessness across the city and its correlation with income and rent data, Jackson Heights and north Corona saw 54 families with children entering homeless shelters in 2015, an increase of 14 families from 2013.
The study says that the increase in family homelessness in these neighborhoods, coupled with rising rents and declining incomes, can also contribute to overcrowding, which may lead to further homelessness. Roughly a quarter of households in Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst are overcrowded, compared to around 11 percent across the city, according to the study.
The report also says that the three neighborhoods have seen substantial increases in households that are rent burdened, or households that spend more than half of their income on rent.
While homelessness has not been a major issue for western Queens as it has been for other parts of the city, the study suggests that the homelessness, rent, and income trends recorded for Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst indicate a potential need for Department of Homeless Services (DHS) locations and programs in the area, as the only homeless prevention centers in Queens are in Jamaica and Far Rockaway.
As far as rates across the city, the number of families entering homeless shelters went up by 23 percent from 2012 to 2016. The majority of families in this figure come from the Bronx, Brooklyn, and parts of Manhattan. Two-thirds of the DHS shelter population are families with children, according to the report.
To access the full report, click here.
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5 Comments
That’s the CCC report findings and its legitimate. This indicates gentrification is under way as other parts of the city. Thank The new law providing legal in housing courts
60 thousand people in the NYC homeless “system”? This number released by this administration makes New Yorkers sound heartless and not very charitable. This is the ?furthest thing from the truth. When I was a child my uncle lost his job and my parents moved him his wife and three children into our two bedroom apartment for almost a year until they got back on their feet. It was crowded but we managed. This is more common than this administration would have us believe. Most of that 60K is semantic and classification games played by the administration and homeless services agencies. People get on homeless
rolls to speed up gov’t housing benefits. Yes, much of the city has become unaffordable to many but you move to a place that is more affordable. That is exactly what the overwhelming majority of my friends and relatives did back in the 60’s and 70’s. We all came from Sunnyside and other neighborhoods in the city and didn’t demand the government find us subsidised housing. We wanted to live closer to our families too. Many didn’t want to leave the old neighborhoods either. Many of the people in the system like the people holding go back to China signs as they got off the buses at the old Pan American Hotel, sound if they have a high sense of entitlement. Government should be focusing more of it’s efforts on the elderly and disabled. Does anyone really believe tens of thousands of families would end up in the streets of NYC if we said no to more shelters? The law that says the city needs to provide shelters needs to be revisited and completly reviewed.
How many NYC homeless are from other places? Wasn’t the unfortunate family, who tragically lost two children in that horrible radiator explosion in a shelter apartment in the Bronx,from Portland Maine?
This study is a farce. just a way for Deblasio administration to force shelters on these neighborhoods in the name of making neighborhoods pull their fair share of “weight”. Since we will never know who these families are or were because of privacy laws the deceitful Deblasio administration can pretty much say anything they want.
Fix corona up, like when it was Italians. Then watch how nice it is