New York's homeless population dropped 7.9% to 145,560 in January 2025 — the largest state decline in the country, driven by NYC — but children under 18 account for 31.7% of the state's homeless count, more than double the 14.6% share in the rest of the nation.

New York State's overall homeless population fell 7.9 percent in January 2025 to 145,560 — the largest one-year decline of any state — driven almost entirely by a 10.3 percent drop in New York City, according to a report released July 23 by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The decrease of 12,459 people pulled back some of the damage from a two-year run-up in which the state's homeless count roughly doubled between January 2022 and January 2024. The figures come from HUD's Point-in-Time Count, the annual one-night census that serves as the federal benchmark for shelter and service funding.

The improvement is uneven. Outside the city, 17 of New York's 25 HUD Continuums of Care saw homelessness rise, and 11 grew by more than 10 percent. The sharpest surges: Columbia and Greene counties (+58.9%), Troy and Rensselaer County (+55.2%), and Schenectady city and county (+41.7%).

The child figure is the number that travels. Children under 18 make up 31.7 percent of New York's homeless population — more than double the 14.6 percent share in the rest of the nation. In New York City specifically, 32.3 percent of the January count was children. In Troy and Rensselaer County, the share reached 39.9 percent.

"The problem is widespread and it is not confined to major cities," DiNapoli said in releasing the report. "In particular, the public, private and nonprofit sectors need to work together to address the crisis of so many children experiencing homelessness in New York."

Albany has enacted statutory changes directing more school aid to districts with high homeless-student counts, and DiNapoli has previously called for stronger eviction-mitigation policies aimed at families. Both measures now face a federal headwind: HUD is overhauling its grant criteria away from "housing first" approaches and tightening eligibility for federal assistance — the same program structure that helped NYC drive its numbers down.

For the city's shelter system, the headline count matters less than what's inside it: roughly one in three people tallied on a January night in New York City's shelters is a child, at the moment Washington is making it harder to fund the beds they sleep in.