Queens Homeless Student Population Increased 50 Percent Since 2011

QUEENS — Queens's homeless student population has increased 50 percent since the 2011-2012 school year, a study by the New York City Independent Budget Office found.

In the citywide study, Queens was found to have 3,971 homeless students in the 2015-2016 school year — the second borough with least number of students living in temporary housing such as hotels and cluster sites.

While this might sound like relatively good news, that number shows a 50 percent increase from the 2011-2012 school year, when the borough had 2,651 homeless students.

The number of homeless students in NYC increased 15 percent to 33,000 in the 2015-2016 school year, the study showed.

The Bronx had the highest homeless student population with 13,729 homeless students, up 44 percent from the 2011-2012 school year.

Brooklyn ranked second with 9,223 homeless student and showed a 18 percent increase — the lowest rate of increase among the five boroughs.

Manhattan ranked third with 4,909 homeless students, which went up 21 percent.

Staten Island, the borough with the lowest homeless student population, saw an increase of 105 percent, from 473 to 973 in five years.

The homeless student population already faces substantial setbacks on a daily basis in order to attend high school, a previous IBO report showed. Considering that a large part of homeless students attend a small portion of the schools, these institutions have not been able to provide the students with the additional funding their students need.

The additional $10.3 million invested into the education system by Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to help improve the conditions faced by homeless students. The controversial plan to move homeless families to newly-built shelters is expected to increase the homeless student population in some schools and decrease it in others.

You can find the full study by the IBO here.

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