NYC migrants spotted sleeping outside will be counted as part of the city’s annual street homelessness census this month, according to Adams administration officials.
The so-called HOPE Count, which was set to be conducted Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, involves city outreach workers and volunteers fanning across the five boroughs to tally how many individuals are sleeping on the streets. The tally is reported to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department and used to assess how much federal funding the city should get for operating homeless shelters.
In a Tuesday afternoon briefing, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom confirmed that newly arrived migrants — dozens of whom have been spotted sleeping outside a Manhattan intake center in recent weeks amid overcrowding in local shelters — will be included in the HOPE Count. She said the city has 1,500 New Yorkers signed up to volunteer for the count, a number she called “fantastic.”
However, asked by the Daily News after the briefing if she expects a bump in federal homeless aid as a result of an increase in the HOPE Count, Williams-Isom demurred.To date, the feds have provided less than $500 million — an amount Adams has characterized as a drop in the bucket when compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars the city says it’s spending every month on housing and providing services for migrants.
According to the latest data from Adams’ office, nearly 70,000 migrants remain housed in city shelters. The city has shelled out more than $3 billion on housing, feeding and providing them with services since the crisis started in spring 2022, Adams administration officials say.