Nearly one in every five children attending a New York City Public school in Brownsville and Bushwick experienced homelessness during the 2024-25 school year, according to a new report.
The report released on Monday from the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York showed that more than 154,000 New York City public school students—nearly one in every seven—experienced homelessness during the 2024–25 school year. This made last year the tenth consecutive year in which more than 100,000 students did not have a permanent place to call home and the first year in which the total number of students in temporary housing exceeded 150,000.
If these students comprised their own school district, it would be one of the 20 largest districts in the country, the report said.
The new data, which were obtained from the New York State Education Department by AFC, show that of the students who experienced homelessness last year, nearly 65,000 (42%) spent time living in city shelters and more than 82,000 (53%) were “doubled up,” or temporarily sharing the housing of others.
The overall rate of student homelessness rose in every borough, relative to the 2023–24 school year, and was highest in Bronx schools, followed by Manhattan. At the community school district level, more than one in five students was identified as homeless at schools in East Harlem, Highbridge and Grand Concourse, Brownsville and Bushwick last school year.
"Education is key to breaking the cycle of homelessness, but our city is currently failing students in shelter," said Maria Odom, executive director of AFC.
The next mayor must prioritize supporting these students with a city-wide, cross-agency effort to reverse the alarming trend, she added.
The report also highlighted:
- More than half of all students in temporary housing and two out of three students in shelter were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least one out of every ten school days.
- Only 22% of students in shelter in grades 3–8 scored proficient on each of the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) and math exams; in both subjects, these proficiency rates were less than half those of permanently housed students.
- One in eight students in shelter dropped out of high school—more than three times the dropout rate of their permanently housed peers—and only 62% graduated in four years.
