New York City Sees Record 1,464 Newly Homeless Families Enter Shelters; 9,300 Families Now In NYC Shelters

October 30, 2008 7:05 a.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - New York City broke records in September when 1,464 newly homeless families entered shelters, it was the largest one-month increase in homeless families since the city began tracking that statistic 25 years ago, the Coalition for the Homeless advocacy group says.

It was the third month of similar high increases in families seeing shelter and a whopping 22 percent increase in homeless families over last year.

There are 9,300 families - more than 28,000 people - now in shelter. The Coalition for the Homeless reportedly compiled data from city reports to get the totals.

September's increase in homeless families is one of the problems caused by the nation's economic crisis. But this increase also comes at a time when the bad economy has caused the city government to slash funding for programs that helped.

Because of reduced revenues, the Bloomberg administration recently asked all city agencies to cut 2.5 percent from their budgets this year.