Youth and family homelessness is worsening across New York City and its suburbs, as high housing and living costs, the end of pandemic-era protections and a shortage of shelter beds push more people into unstable housing.

The crisis is also easy to undercount: families staying with relatives or in hotels may not appear in homelessness figures, even as rent, childcare and grocery costs strain household budgets.

More than 350,000 people are homeless in New York City, with children making up more than one-third of that population; Women in Need shelters about 7,000 people each night, roughly half of them children, while demand for youth beds exceeds supply.

On Long Island, 4,500 people experienced homelessness across Nassau and Suffolk counties last year, the highest count since tracking began in 2007, and nearly one-third were children.

The figures have a human face: Manuel Miras Dehoy worked more than 50 hours a week at Taco Bell but could not afford Long Island rents, slept at a train station and now lives in transitional housing.

Ayeska Falu, 24, has experienced homelessness as both a teenager and a parent; despite working and trying to provide for her two children, she says she has not been able to secure stable housing.

Susan Casiano earns about $17,000 a year at Sam’s Club and lives with her two youngest sons in an Elmsford hotel room, sometimes going without food so they can eat.

A state policy dating to the 1990s allows county shelters to take a substantial share of a working family’s income; Casiano says a shelter would leave her with just $45 a month, and some state lawmakers are seeking to repeal the rule.

Housing instability also disrupts children’s education and relationships: just 27% of shelter-residing students in grades three through eight are proficient in reading and math, and Gregory Rodriguez described the social costs of repeatedly leaving home.

New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is promoting the bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act, which would align HUD’s definition of homelessness with that used by agencies such as the Department of Education, potentially allowing children staying in motels or doubled up with relatives to qualify for housing assistance.

Advocates say youth homelessness programs are underfunded and fragmented, and that inconsistent definitions obscure the scale of the problem; research cited in the article finds that up to 40% of chronically homeless adults first experienced homelessness before age 25.

New York’s 2021 Child Poverty Reduction Act aims to halve child poverty by 2031, but advocates say families have yet to feel enough progress and are urging faster action.