More Than 1,100 District 16 Students Identified As Homeless: Data

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Scores of kids attending school in District 16 had no place to call home during the last academic year, according to a report released Thursday.

More than 1,100 students in the Bed-Stuy district 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.

That number was the lowest of Brooklyn's 12 school districts, but, given District 16's small size, it made up a large slice of the population.

The district was one of two in Brooklyn where more than 15 percent of students experienced homelessness during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the report by the New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students, which is based on New York State Education Department data.

Neighboring District 23 also had more than 15 percent of its students identified as homeless.

District 13, which includes the western portion of Bed-Stuy, had 1,500 homeless students, between 5 and 9 percent of its student population.

The largest number of students in Brooklyn was found in District 19, where 3,650 students experienced homelessness last year. That number is between 10 and 15 percent of the district's population, according to the data.

About 111,000 students citywide, including more than 30,200 in Brooklyn 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 homelessness.

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

Patch Reporter Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.