More Than 138,000 NYC Students Experienced Homelessness Last School Year, New Data Shows – City Limits

Though student homelessness declined by 10 percent from the previous school year, advocates warn that tens of thousands of children continue to face housing instability, transportation barriers and educational challenges.

Official response and confirmed impact

Still, it marks the 11th consecutive year that more than 100,000 city students lacked permanent housing.

The decline was largely driven by a 22 percent decrease in the number of students living in shelters, though that population remained 41 percent higher than a decade ago.

Incident under investigation

“While it’s encouraging to see that student homelessness is declining after reaching historic highs in 2024-25, today’s data is no cause for celebration,” said Maria Odom, executive director of AFC, in a statement Tuesday.

More than 138,000 New York City public school students experienced homelessness during the 2025-26 school year, roughly one in every eight students, according to data released Tuesday by Advocates for Children of New York (AFC).

The figure represents a 10 percent decline from the previous school year, when student homelessness surpassed 150,000 for the first time.

Of those students, more than 50,700, or 37 percent, spent time in shelters, while approximately 81,100, or 58 percent, were “doubled up”—temporarily sharing housing with relatives, friends or others because of housing loss or economic hardship, according to the report.