In the Real Estate Collapse, is there Homelessness?

There is much said about homelessness, but many think that the Bloomberg Administration is doing their best to conceal it. Bloomberg keeps protesting that he is not running for President, but the lady may be protesting too much.

The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) conducts an annual survey of the homeless in the city, known as the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE).
The annual survey helps to reach out to the homeless. Volunteers will be offering people a way into the shelter system, and other programs available to them. HOPE 2008 serves as a gauge to determine if measures currently in effect are working to help the homeless.

Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Robert Hess said "It’s unacceptable for so many of our fellow New Yorkers to be living on the streets." The department recruited volunteers, who received a special HOPE 2008 T-shirt. HOPE 2008 employed the same methodology used in previous counts. Volunteer teams canvassed all areas identified to likely have street homeless individuals. In addition, a random sample of those areas not identified as likely to have street homeless individuals also will be canvassed.

"Decoys," or trained individuals posing as homeless individuals, are planted as a quality assurance measure. This shadow count helps to gauge the accuracy of the total estimate and allows adjustment of the final count estimate accordingly. This is the fourth year HOPE has included a shadow count.

The count is part of the city program called "Uniting for Solutions Beyond Shelter." HOPE is critical to helping evaluate the effectiveness of current strategies to overcome street homelessness as well as developing appropriate housing resources for the most vulnerable New Yorkers currently living without shelter. The count of homeless out on the street is in addition to those New Yorkers who already sleep in shelters. In an average night, 35,000 people are in city homeless shelters, according to the non-profit organization, the Coalition for the Homeless. According to a Coalition spokesperson, they give out 1,000 meals a night, free, to the homeless and the needy. The homelessness problem is made more difficult by an average 8-percent increase in rents over the last 3 years, and declines in median income.

Now if only we could have some more public housing, or as they call it these days "subsidized housing." This post brought to you by those ultra-fab fashionistas at T-Shirt Queen and I Love Harlem Apparel. Peace and Love y'all.