More Than 1,100 District 26 Students Identified As Homeless: Data

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Scores of kids attending school in District 26 had no place to call home during the last academic year, according to a report released Thursday.

More than 1,100 students in Northeast Queens were "doubled up" in shared living situations, were living in homeless shelters or were "unsheltered" last year, spending the night in cars, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailers or abandoned buildings.

Other Queens districts had even higher numbers of students experiencing homelessness, according to the report by the New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students's report, which is based on New York State Education Department data.

District 24 had the most in Queens, with roughly 5,600 homeless students last year, and ranked third among all New York City school districts.

About 111,000 students citywide, including more than 21,000 in Queens alone, were identified as homeless in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the report.

“The vast scale of student homelessness in New York City demands urgent attention,” Kim Sweet, executive director of the nonprofit Advocates for Children, said. “If these children comprised their own city, it would be larger than Albany, and their numbers may skyrocket even further after the state eviction moratorium is lifted, the city must act now to put more support in place for students who are homeless.”

Still, advocates said the most recent numbers could be an undercount due to the coronavirus pandemic and the start of remote learning, which may have impeded schools' ability to identify how many students were experiencing homeless.

The number of homeless students reported in District 26 last year was several dozen higher than the previous school year, according to the data.

Meanwhile, the number of New York City students counted as homeless went down 2 percent since the 2018-2019 school year.