Statistics

• As of August 31, 2010, the total number of homeless people living in New York is approximately 36,847, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. This makes for a large population in the city's street life. 14,495 of these homeless are under the age of 18, and there are also a total of 9,530 homeless families. The number of homeless could be much higher, since surveying them all is a difficult task.
  
  

Geography

• Street life in New York is mainly focused around the city's central business district of midtown Manhattan. It is where you can find the majority of unsheltered homeless individuals. However, there are still many homeless throughout other parts of the city, in the subway systems and public spaces.
  
  

Considerations

• When New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in 2002, his aim was to diminish street life in the city. Shelters and handouts have helped to curb the problem, but numbers are still extremely high. Shelters are unable to house all the homeless, and still thousands of people are left on the streets on a nightly basis. As of 2008, the administration was still making the homeless problem a top priority.