More New Yorkers are living on the streets this year than last, according to an annual survey of homelessness in the city. The Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) survey, which was conducted by the Department of Homeless Services on January 30, found the number of homeless people increased from 2,648 in 2011 to 3,262, marking an overall increase of 23 percent. Which means it's the perfect time to cut off funding to one of the city's major homeless advocacy groups! more ›

Over the years, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has come to be viewed by many New Yorkers as a pliant tool of the Bloomberg administration. But with an end to the Bloomberg era on the horizon, Quinn—a likely mayoral candidate—is eager to show some daylight between her and the billionaire plutocrat. To that end, the City Council will slap the Bloomberg administration with a lawsuit over a controversial policy requiring single homeless adults to prove they have nowhere else to stay before the city gives them shelter. more ›

When Governor Cuomo passed his belt-strangling budget back in April, one of the things that ended up on the cutting room floor was funding for the city's Advantage program, which helped 15,000 households with working family members by subsidizing up to $1,100 a month toward rent for up to two years. The state formerly paid $65 million toward the program, which has a budget of $140 million (out of which the feds pay $27 million and the city pays $48 million). With that money cut off, the city decided to scrap the whole thing, and now, after a court battle, a judge has give the Bloomberg administration the green light to do so. more ›

Grisly news in East New York: A Department of Homeless Service employee was found dead in her Pennsylvania Avenue apartment on Wednesday. Gwendolyn Brown was found in her bed, with a single close-range gunshot to her head, which had been covered with a blanket prior to the shooting. Brown, 54, worked for the Department of Homeless Services, and concerned coworkers called her landlord when she didn't show up for work. more ›

The NYC Department of Homeless Services, curious to see how effectively it services the homeless, is being berated for conducting a study that left 200 families banned at random from city assistance. In lieu of gentler polling, a total of 400 families on the brink of homelessness were split into two categories: An experimental group, who were allowed to continue their use of the service, and a control group, who were banned from receiving aid for two years and told to fend for themselves. more ›

The competition for jobs in NYC is about to get even tougher, now that desperate homeless people are expected to get out there and work if they sleep at city shelters. The new Commissioner for Homeless Services, Seth Diamond, tells the Daily News, "The broad culture change is an expectation of work the day you get in shelter until the day you exit. The greeting will be, 'You are not staying here all day. You are going out. You will be assigned an activity.' " Party's over, homeless people! It's unclear what "activity" Diamond's talking about, but maybe he can put them to work finishing some of these stalled condo projects... so they can have homes? more ›

A city-run apartment building for homeless families has put a Bronx toddler in danger—twice this week. Five days after Dymond Salgado and her family were forced to leave one apartment in their Grand Concourse building because the two-year-old was suffering from lead poisoning, a ceiling collapsed in their new apartment, covering the child in "debris and plaster teeming with water bugs and centipedes." more ›

An attorney representing the Department of Homeless Services driver who was pulled over for drunk driving on his way to Mayor Bloomberg's inauguration says his client was sober. Nathaniel Chambers was headed to pick up Commissioner Robert Hess and bring him to the City Hall inaugural when he was pulled over at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge toll plaza and charged with DWI — his second since he started at the agency nine years ago. more ›

An employee of the city's Department of Homeless Services is accused of having a bit too much to drink before reporting to work on New Year's Day. Nathaniel Chambers, 45, is suspected of drunk driving on his way to pick up Commissioner Robert Hess, who was waiting for a ride to the Mayor's inauguration yesterday morning. more ›

If bedbugs in the office are the next city scare, sign us up for bubble living. NY1 got an anonymous tip that "workers on eight floors of the Department of Homeless Services building on Beaver Street have been getting bitten by insects since Monday." But the DHS said, "We immediately began taking corrective action, and are extending it to all premises occupied by DHS. We are aggressively addressing the situation with an expert contractor and building management. No DHS employee has reported bites received from our building." Related: David Letterman doesn't understand what why Mary Louise Parker is so freaked out about bedbugs. more ›

The NY Times reports that the Department of Homeless Services is enacting a new policy giving shelters more power to evict homeless families: "Homeless families can be kicked out of city shelters for repeatedly breaking rules like staying out past curfew or for refusing apartments offered to them." While DHS Commissioner Robert Hess claims it'll be used only in "egregious situations," pointing out some families use the shelters as permanent housing, Legal Aid's attorney in chief Steven Banks said, "With all of the problems that the state has and all of the problems that the city has right now, in the midst of this economic downturn, it’s shocking that the state and the city are prepared to invest the resources to put innocent children and their families out of safety-net shelters onto the streets." But one shelter operator said, "There’s not a caseworker alive that wants to realize that threat, and as an agency, we don’t want to move people to the streets. That’s not what we’re in business to do. But if you enter the shelter, if you know there’s a threat of being put out of the shelter, you’ll be more likely to follow the rules." more ›

The city's Department of Homeless Services has recently begun enforcing a rule that is forcing 22 churches to stop serving as homeless shelters. The long-ignored rule states that religious-based shelters operate a minimum of five days a week. Many of these churches had long slipped under the radar and housed those in need three days a week. Arnold Cohen, president of the Partnership for the Homeless, who recently had to break the news to churches told the News, "We will see hundreds of people who will not have a place to sleep. It's antithetical to what the mayor talks about." The city is expected to once again this winter use the Code Blue system, an emergency-preparedness system that prompts city workers to take extra precautions to protect homeless people living on the streets. Right now we are at Level Two in Code Blue with temperatures outside currently at 17ºF after the wind chill factor. more ›

The Coalition for the Homeless says "little-noticed data" shows "the number of new homeless families... has surpassed all-time record levels each of the past three months." Last month, 1,464 new families moved into the shelter system, which is the "highest one-month count since the City began keeping records 25 years ago" and it's 22% higher than September 2007. The group's head, Mary Brosnahan, told the Daily News, "While both city and state budget shortfalls require difficult choices, vulnerable New Yorkers now need more support, not less." Department of Homeless Services Commissioner Robert Hess tried to find a silver lining, "The fact that our system is withstanding the test of recent high demand is evidence that we have successfully transformed the families system and put a solid infrastructure in place." Earlier this year, NY Magazine had an article about how homelessness is the "single biggest failure of the Bloomberg administration." more ›