Spending on the city homeless shelters rose a whopping 62% in the past eight years, with the total expected to reach close to $1 billion this year, according to a new report.
The staggering number includes all money spent on the city’s 271 shelters from city, state and federal funds, according to the Independent Budget Office report released Thursday.
In 2007, the three government entities spent a total of $604 million on Big Apple shelters.
That will rise to an estimated $976 million this year.
The number of homeless New Yorkers has skyrocketed since 2011, when the state eliminated the Advantage Rental subsidy program, which helped people leave the shelter system.
Mayor de Blasio, who has made reducing homelessness one of his biggest priorities, has focused on reducing the number of families in shelters, with some success.
As of June, the number of families in the system decreased by 4% from its peak of 59,060 in December, according to the report.
But that number likely won’t put a dent in the amount of money the city spends on shelters.
Under the current funding formula — which is determined by the state — the federal government picks up the tab for many of the family shelters.
The city is on the hook for most of the facilities that house individuals — and that number has risen 6%, the report found.
A spokeswoman for the mayor said the “administration is tackling homelessness with solutions focused on permanent housing.”
