New York City has more than tripled spending on unsheltered homelessness since 2019, shelling out nearly $368 million even as the number of people living on the streets continued to rise, according to a state comptroller’s report.
The city’s own numbers show the unsheltered population grew from 3,588 in fiscal year 2019 to 4,504 in fiscal year 2025, a 26% increase from pre-pandemic levels. Over that same period, spending on services for the unsheltered jumped 262%, from $102 million to nearly $368 million.
That works out to roughly $81,700 per unsheltered person in FY 2025 — slightly more than the city’s median household income, though the comparison is only a broad benchmark since public spending and household earnings are not directly comparable.
The numbers show the city is pouring in more money while the street homeless population continues to grow — and taxpayers are footing the bill.
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Still, the report notes that New York’s shelter system remains unusually large by national standards.
Los Angeles, the city with the next-largest homeless population, has about 71,000 homeless people, roughly half of New York City’s 2024 total, and about 70% of them are unsheltered. In New York City, by contrast, nearly 97% of the homeless population is in shelters.
The findings are likely to add fuel to the broader debate over housing affordability, as soaring rents and a shortage of low-cost housing remain central to New York City’s homelessness crisis — and a key issue for Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
While Mamdani has proposed freezing rents on roughly 2 million stabilized apartments, many economists argue that rent freezes may shield current tenants in the short term while worsening the city’s long-term housing shortage — doing little to solve the supply crisis at the root of New York’s homelessness problem.
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More broadly, his $127 billion budget proposal calls for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations, along with a possible 9.5% property tax increase if state lawmakers decline to act.
Whether that approach will ease the affordability crunch or further disrupt the housing market remains an open question, with critics warning that rent freezes and higher taxes could discourage investment and strain supply.
In the nation’s largest city and a global financial capital, the stakes of Mamdani’s agenda extend far beyond local politics. The success or failure of his housing and tax proposals could shape not only the future of New York’s affordability crisis, but also the broader debate over regulation, taxation and progressive urban governance.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
