New York's homeless population has grown in communities outside New York City despite a statewide decline, a new report from the New York State Comptroller's Office reveals.
In the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Point-in-Time Count, which evaluates how many sheltered and unsheltered people are experiencing homelessness on a single night in January, the Empire State saw a nearly 8% decrease in its homeless population between 2024 and 2025.
The drop is the largest of any state and follows a doubling of that percentage between 2022 and 2024, the comptroller's office says. However, the change relies heavily on declines in New York City and isn't representative of what's happening in the rest of the state.
And the share of unhoused children in New York is more than double the rest of the country.
"While the number of homeless declined, there's a lot of work left to do," state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said. "The problem is widespread and it is not confined to major cities. In particular, the public, private and nonprofit sectors need to work together to address the crisis of so many children experiencing homelessness in New York."
Here's the latest.
Where has New York's homeless population grown?
The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, divides New York into 25 regions, or Continuums of Care. According to their data, the unhoused population has grown in 17 of these regions with 11 of them seeing more than a 10% increase. Here's which regions have seen increases across the state between January 2024 and January 2025.
- Columbia and Greene counties: 58.9% increase
- City of Troy/Rensselaer County: 55.2% increase
- City of Schenectady/Schenectady County: 41.7% increase
- City of Binghamton, Town of Union/Broome, Otsego, Chenango, Delaware, Cortland and Tioga counties: 35% increase
- Cities of Newburgh and Middletown/Orange County: 23% increase
- Cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls/Erie, Niagara, Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties: 14.1% increase
- Nassau and Suffolk counties: 13.4% increase
- City of Rochester, Towns of Irondequoit and Greece/Monroe County: 13.1% increase
- Cities of Utica and Rome/Oneida and Madison counties: 12.2% increase
- Cities of Yonkers and Mount Vernon/Westchester County: 7.4% increase
- City of Poughkeepsie/Dutchess County: 5.8% increase
- Franklin and Essex counties: 5.4% increase
- City of Albany/Albany County: 4.5% increase
- Cities of Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs/Saratoga, Washington, Warren and Hamilton counties: 3% increase
- Cities of Syracuse and Auburn/Onondaga, Oswego and Cayuga counties: 2.8% increase
Systemic issues could be part of the reason why homelessness levels are increasing in parts of the state. A recent lawsuit claims New York is allegedly failing to provide enough money to prevent homelessness through its public assistance shelter allowance program as median rents in the state have increased 85.6% but none of New York's 62 counties have shelter allowances aligned with the respective county's HUD fair market rent rate.
For example, in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, there's a more than $2,000 difference between how much the state provided a single household in 2025 and the federal shelter allowance.
Where has New York's homeless population decreased?
Here's which regions have seen decreases across the state between January 2024 and January 2025:
- Wayne, Ontario, Seneca and Yates counties: 5.6% decrease
- City of Kingston/Ulster County: 8.3% decrease
- New York City: 10.3% decrease
- City of Ithaca/Tompkins County: 13.3% decrease
- Rockland County: 13.8% decrease
- City of Elmira/Steuben, Allegany, Livingston, Chemung and Schuyler counties: 16.5% decrease
- Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties: 18.5% decrease
Emily Barnes covers state government for the USA TODAY Network-New York with a focus on how policy and laws impact New Yorkers' taxes, communities and jobs. Follow her on Instagram or X @byemilybarnes. Get in touch at ebarnes@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY's homeless population continues to grow outside of NYC. See where
