Update On "Homelessness" In New York

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Update On "Homelessness" In New York

  • Recently (May 2026) I did an update on the “homelessness” situation in San Francisco. The title was “The Homeless Industrial Complex Eats San Francisco For Lunch.”‍ ‍

  • I have taken a particular interest in “homelessness” in San Francisco ever since that city had a big referendum back in 2018 to pass a special payroll tax supposedly to solve the “homelessness” problem once and for all. The result in San Francisco, you will not be surprised to learn, was that the Homeless Industrial Complex has since swallowed up all the new funding and much more, while the number of people identified as “homeless” has only gone up, and then up some more.

  • But how about New York? In recent years the City hasn’t exactly been bragging about its success in this area, so data have been a little hard to come by. However, a few days ago (September 5) the New York Post had a story that gives an idea of the overall picture.

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There Are No Budget Constraints In New York City: "Coastal Resiliency" Edition

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  • I often make fun of the federal government as operating with what it thinks is an “infinite credit card,” outside and beyond any budget restraints. And thus all problems, real or imaginary, can be solved by dispensing some of the infinite federal loot. In its partial defense, the federal government does have the ability to print money, although that ability too eventually runs into limits.

  • And then we have New York City. The City has no ability to print money, but nevertheless operates as if there are no constraints on spending. The sky is the limit! Recently I wrote about how the City spends about triple the national average per student on preK-12 education, and more than double the national average per capita on Medicaid. Those are crazy excessive amounts, but at least education and healthcare are bona fide purposes for the spending of resources.

  • But how about spending huge amounts of money on pure fantasies that accomplish absolutely nothing?

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New York/Florida State Budget Comparison, FY 2027 Edition

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  • New York’s and Florida’s respective state budgets have just been finalized for what they call the 2027 “fiscal year.”

  • In New York’s case the FY runs from April 1 to March 31, so the budget is supposed to be final by April 1; but, this being New York, the budget was about 8 weeks late. In Florida the FY runs from July 1 to June 30, and the legislature has already completed its work on the FY 2027 budget.

  • Ability to meet fixed deadlines is just one of many ways in which Florida exemplifies responsible state government while New York exemplifies the irresponsible version. Over the past several years, I have had multiple posts comparing state governance in New York versus Florida, for example this post from June last year comparing the budgets of the two states.

  • With another year’s budgets now complete, it’s time for an update.

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The Homeless Industrial Complex Eats San Francisco For Lunch

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The Homeless Industrial Complex Eats San Francisco For Lunch

  • It’s been a long time since I have done an update on the homelessness situation in San Francisco. The reason is that I have avoided the issue until sufficient evidence had accumulated to make the obvious conclusion completely definitive and undeniable.

  • It was all the way back in 2018 that some of San Francisco’s foremost do-gooders, led by billionaire Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, organized a referendum to implement a new payroll tax to raise the revenue to solve the homelessness problem once and for all.

  • The referendum was designed to raise some $300 million per year, on top of San Fran’s already generous homelessness spending. All of the new spending was to be dedicated to the task of ending the homelessness crisis.

  • On October 24, 2018 — just a few days before the referendum was scheduled to take place — Benioff got an op-ed published in the New York Times advocating for its passage. The gist of the op-ed was that it was time for San Francisco’s business community to step up and get this done.

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Inside The New York City "Budget Crisis": PreK-12 Education

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  • You may have heard that New York City has a “budget crisis.” The reason you may have heard that is that our new Mayor Mamdani has been loudly proclaiming that mantra to anyone who will listen.

  • After taking office on January 1, Mamdani promptly came up with the “budget crisis” theme during his first month in office, of course blaming the supposed crisis on his predecessor Eric Adams; and he has been repeating the mantra regularly ever since.

  • From a Mamdani press release on January 28: TODAY, Mayor Zohran Mamdani outlined the “Adams Budget Crisis,” a fiscal emergency driven by years of staggering mismanagement under former Mayor Eric Adams. . . .

  • It’s not just a “crisis,” but also an “emergency.” And moving forward to two days ago, there was Mamdani once more, this time in the City Hall rotunda, harping on the same words again — and using them to demand that the state Legislature and Governor enact new taxes to provide him with additional revenue. From NBC News, April 28:

  • "New York City faces a budget crisis of historic magnitude," Mamdani said Tuesday during a joint press conference. "We've inherited a deficit larger than any since the Great Recession. Years of mismanagement and chronic under budgeting, alongside a structural imbalance between what New York City sends to the State and what we receive in return, have taken a toll. We cannot close this deficit with savings alone. We need new revenue.”

  • So has New York City actually been the subject of “chronic under-budgeting” as Mamdani asserts?

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Mayor Mamdani Declares That New York Has A "Budget Crisis"

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  • One of the first tasks that a new Mayor has in New York City after taking office is to present a budget. Given that an annual New York City budget is well north of $100 billion, you would think that this is a serious undertaking. But our new Mayor is the 34-year-old play-acting college socialist Zohran Mamdani. How does he handle the task?

  • Mamdani kicked the process of with a press conference at City Hall on January 28. Here is a transcript and video of his remarks. Excerpt:

  • I want to speak directly to New Yorkers, who have for too long been misled and misinformed about the true state of our City's finances. I will be blunt: New York City is facing a serious fiscal crisis. There is a massive fiscal deficit in our City's budget to the tune of at least $12 billion. We did not arrive at this place by accident. This crisis has a name and a chief architect. In the words of the Jackson 5, it's as easy as A-B-C. This is the Adams Budget Crisis.

  • Yes, there is a “serious fiscal crisis,” featuring a looming deficit of some $12 billion, all of which is entirely the fault of our prior Mayor (Eric Adams). And what is the underlying cause of this “crisis”?

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