Harder for Homeless to Enter N.Y.C. Shelters, Report Finds

More homeless families are being denied permanent shelter in New York City, and many are being forced to reapply multiple times before the city finds them eligible to enter the system — two trends that burden already fragile families, according to a new report by the Coalition for the Homeless.

State eligibility requirements have been tightened, a change made in November at the request of the city, which is grappling with a strained shelter system that is struggling trying to meet demands. Though the city recently announced a plan to open 90 new shelters over the next five years, about 18,500 homeless people are temporarily staying in hotels and so-called cluster apartments in the meantime.

In its report, released on Tuesday, the Coalition gave the state and the city near-failing grades on its eligibility requirements, and found that the city could reduce homelessness more quickly than it has promised. Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to reduce the number of people living in shelters by 2,500 people over five years, a decrease of 4 percent from the current 60,000 people in the primary system.

According to the report, the city could achieve a reduction of about 25 percent in all of the city’s shelter systems by 2020 if the city and state adopted policies to open more affordable housing and rental subsidies for homeless people. “We don’t want the expectations to be that we can’t reduce homelessness in a meaningful way,” said Giselle Routhier, the policy director at the Coalition.

The application process became more onerous after the city petitioned the state to give them more leeway to deny shelter. Homeless people are required once again to provide documentation from multiple sources and are subjected to city investigators. Children often miss school during the application process.

The Coalition found that 42 percent of applying families were approved for shelter in December, a drop from a high of 50 percent found eligible in October. The percentage of families required to apply multiple times also rose to 45 percent from 37 percent from July to December.

KayKay Knight, 32, who has a disk disease, applied for shelter last year when the stairs in her uncle’s Brooklyn home became too difficult for her to manage, she said. Ms. Knight, who has a five-year-old daughter, said she was denied permanent shelter roughly 12 times.

She was in provisional shelter while the city investigated her case, and her uncle said he had felt harassed, creating more animosity within her family. “He didn’t want me there,” she said. “Just imagine how many times they went to his home.”

With help from the Legal Aid Society, Ms. Knight qualified in November, moving to a shelter where she can easily access a bathroom.

But Steven Banks, commissioner of the Department of Social Services and former chief attorney of the Legal Aid Society, recalled a family that sought homeless services because a child with physical disabilities could no longer manage in the walk-up apartment where they lived. Mr. Banks said, “You know what? We will spend money on a ramp.”

Mr. Banks said the state changes have given the city more flexibility to help people stay with relatives and in previous residences. “Those kinds of interventions were not possible; now they are,” he said.

The Coalition still says there is more that needs to be done. The report gave the city poor rankings for failing to adequately meet the needs of mentally ill and disabled homeless people, and said it was unimpressed with its “code blue” policy of broadening access to shelters when the temperature falls to 32 degrees between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Mr. Banks criticized that assessment and said a street outreach program, “virtually 24 hours,” was always in place. He also pushed back on other points in the report, saying that the city has found that reapplications were down recently.

Frank Sobrino, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, disputed some of the report’s findings as well, and noted that the state has committed itself heavily to affordable housing.

“Advocates by nature advocate, but lies and false reports will not help a single person find a home, unlike the state’s all-time high investment in combating this crisis,” he said in a statement.