Families in a shelter surge

THE NUMBER of families forced to move into homeless shelters jumped 23% over four years — with spikes seen even in some middleclass and upper-income neighborhoods, according to a new report.

Families also stayed longer in shelters — an average of 431 days, up from 243 — meaning there are even more families with children in city homeless shelters today than at the height of the Great Recession, according to the Citizens’ Committee for Children analysis.

The number of families who went into shelters went up from 10,878 in fiscal year 2012 to 13,311 in 2016.

Jumps were seen in higher-income neighborhoods like Chelsea and Midtown, where the number of families with kids going into shelters surged from 46 in 2013 to 79 in 2015. On the Upper West Side, it jumped from 58 to 87 families, and in Astoria, Queens, from 73 to 90.

“It’s critical to examine what is driving housing instability among families,” said the committee’s executive director, Jennifer March.