<\/p>\n
A homeless person\u2019s belongings are seen under I-787 at Corning Preserve in Albany. While homelessness fell statewide in New York, much of the decline was driven by New York City, and many upstate counties saw increases in housing instability.<\/p>\n
Will Waldron\/Times Union<\/p>\n
The number of people experiencing homelessness in New York fell in 2025, but only because of a sharp decline in New York City. Across much of the rest of the state, homelessness continued to rise, with several Capital Region counties recording the largest increases, according to a report<\/a> released by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli\u2019s office.<\/p>\n After doubling between January 2022 and January 2024, New York\u2019s homeless population declined 7.9% during the January 2025 count, to 145,560 people. New York recorded the largest decline of any state, with 12,459 fewer people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Outside New York City, however, homelessness continued to rise in many communities.<\/p>\n Homelessness increased in 17 of the state\u2019s 25 \u201cContinuums of Care\u201d\u00a0\u2014 regional planning areas used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to coordinate homeless services\u00a0\u2014 with increases of more than 10% in 11 of those regions. The largest increases were in the Columbia-Greene region, where homelessness rose nearly 60%, followed by the Troy-Rensselaer County region, where it increased 55.2%, and Schenectady County, where it climbed 41.7%.<\/p>\n Despite the statewide decline, the share of unhoused children remained \u201cstubbornly high\u201d at 31.7%\u00a0\u2014 more than double the rate for the rest of the country, the report states.<\/p>\n Make the Times Union a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our journalism when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Troy-Rensselaer County region had the highest share of homeless children in the state. Nearly four in 10 people experiencing homelessness there were younger than 18 at the time of the January 2025 point-in-time count, almost triple the national rate.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The report used data from HUD\u2019s annual point-in-time count<\/a>, conducted each January by local nonprofits that work with people experiencing homelessness. It counts two separate groups: unsheltered people\u00a0\u2014 those sleeping in places such as bus stations, abandoned buildings, cars, parks and encampments\u00a0\u2014 and those in emergency or transitional housing.<\/p>\n Point-in-time counts generally do not capture everyone who is unsheltered. A 2017 report from the National Law Center on Poverty and Homelessness suggests the count misses at least half.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile the number of homeless declined, there\u2019s a lot of work left to do,\u201d DiNapoli said in a release. \u201cThe problem is widespread and it is not confined to major cities. In particular, the public, private and nonprofit sectors need to work together to address the crisis of so many children experiencing homelessness in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates\u00a0have blamed rising homelessness<\/a> in Columbia and Greene counties on a lack of affordable housing.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In Columbia County, rent has increased at triple the rate of wages since 2020, according to the think tank Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress<\/a>. In Greene County, the average renter earns $13.89 an hour\u00a0but would need to earn nearly $20.50 an hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment at fair market rent.<\/p>\n Like most rural counties in the state, the Twin Counties rely on domestic violence shelters and privately operated motels to house people experiencing homelessness. Advocates say those motels are often poorly maintained, far from social services and costly for counties.<\/p>\n More:<\/strong>\u00a0Families stuck for years in Hudson Valley motels, \u2018just trying to survive\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Some local efforts to combat homelessness are underway. In Columbia County, a Wellness Hub<\/a> that will include emergency housing and permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness is expected to break ground by the end of the year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In Greenport, Hudson developer Danny Messing is also looking to build a 25-room emergency housing site off\u00a0Fairview Avenue.<\/p>\n The state has also launched several initiatives aimed at increasing housing supply and improving affordability, including a $25 billion, five-year housing plan to create and preserve 100,000 affordable homes statewide<\/a>, increase new home construction and address inequities in the housing market. More than 81,000 affordable homes have been created or preserved to date, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul\u2019s office.<\/p>\n More:<\/strong>\u00a0Hochul says housing plan is ahead of pace, but shortage remains<\/a><\/p>\n The state Legislature also passed the Education, Labor and Family Assistance bill this year as part of the state budget. It includes provisions that will direct more school aid to high-need districts with students experiencing poverty, homelessness or learning disabilities.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Last year, HUD announced it would shift most of grant funding for Continuum of Care away from \u201chousing first\u201d programs<\/a> and toward transitional housing, prompting a\u00a0multistate lawsuit led by New York<\/a>. Several weeks later, HUD said it was withdrawing those plans \u201cto make appropriate revisions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHousing first\u201d programs provide immediate, permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness without preconditions such as sobriety or employment, then offer voluntary, individually tailored services. The strategy is widely considered the most effective approach to ending homelessness.<\/p>\n \u201cPolicies that can mitigate evictions and provide housing assistance, particularly to families with children, should continue to remain a focus of policymakers at federal, state and local levels,\u201d DiNapoli\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeless person\u2019s belongings are seen under I-787 at Corning Preserve in Albany. While homelessness fell statewide in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":956674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,326856,364155,275397,405,403,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,342143,384823,290,11547,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-956673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-hvexp","tag-hvnews","tag-latestnews","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rensco","tag-schoco","tag-state","tag-troy","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116976231918120620","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n