More Than 1,700 District 15 Students Identified As Homeless: Data

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Scores of kids attending school in District 15 had no place to call home during the last academic year, according to a report released Thursday.

More than 1,700 students in the western Brooklyn school 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 represented more than 5 percent of the student population in District 15, which extends from Carroll Gardens down to Sunset Park, 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.

Two Brooklyn school districts, Districts 16 and 23, had more than 15 percent of their student population experiencing homelessness, according to the data.

The largest number, not percentage, 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.