Despite the City having an economic Renaissance and a $6 billion dollar budget surplus, the student homeless population continues to increase. Of the 1.1 million students, approximately 140,000 are homeless or 10% of the student population. In fact, there has been a 28% increase in student homelessness since Bill de Blasio became Mayor of New York City. In the last 20 year period, between 1994 and 2014, there has been a 115% increase in sthe student homeless population and that has only increased in the last few years as it rose 22% in the 2015-2016 school year and another 6% in the 2015-2017 school year.
Obviously, the reason for the increased homeless population is due to an affordable housing shortage and the City still a attractive location for recent immigrants, many of then with limited English language skills, In fact, Mayor Bill de Blasio has told Puerto Ricans that while their students are welcome to the New York City schools, their family better be able to have friends or relatives take in since the City has no housing to provide them with and the shelters are overcrowded as is..
Educationally, its a well known fact that homeless students experience higher dropout rates, lower graduation rates, and chronic absenteeism. The ICPH study shows how homelessness affects student academic achievement. Until the student homeless problem is solved, expecting real academic improvement is simply "smoke and mirrors".
In Queens schools the amount of homeless students vary by school district. They are as follows:
District 24.............................4,186
District 25.............................2,020
District 26...............................945
District 27............................3,164
District 28............................2,638
District 29............................2,782
District 30............................3,058
Total..................................18,173