I stumbled upon something interesting over the weekend and I had to share it…
In an average night in New York City in January 2022:
- 55,677 people stayed in homeless shelters. (1)
- 14.2 people were arrested inside those shelters. (2)
That means:
- Only 1 out of every 3,921 residents had a serious issue.
- 99.97% of shelter residents did NOT have a serious issue.
Is it possible that homeless folks aren’t as bad as the world thinks?
peace,
Ryan
SOURCES AND NOTES
(1) That number is from the annual point in time count. I assumed that the night of the count was a typical night for the month. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/ahar/2022-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness-in-the-us.html
(2) I got the average by dividing the 439 arrests that month by 31 days in the month. https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/stats/reports-analysis/homeless-shelter-arrests.page
