City’s share of cost for homeless soars

The city is shouldering most of the increased costs for sheltering the Big Apple’s homeless as the feds decrease their role, according to a report released Wednesday.

City taxpayers paid $151 million, or 31 percent, of the total cost of sheltering homeless families in fiscal 2013.

By 2017, that share had swelled to 44 percent, or $421 million, according to an analysis by the Independent Budget Office.

“The city relies on a mix of federal, state and local funds to pay for [homeless shelter] costs,” the study said. “But the increase in costs has not been borne evenly across these funding sources.”

In comparison, federal funding in 2013 for family shelters came in at $297 million, or 60 percent.

As the average number of homeless families soared, federal funding also increased — but not at the same rate as the city’s contribution.

The feds kicked in $470.7 million in 2017 — but that was just 49 percent of the total tab.

The state’s contribution remained nearly steady at about 8 to 9 percent.

City Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn), who chairs the General Welfare Committee, said while Washington and Albany must do their fair share, the report also shows “in very stark terms” that the city needs to be doing a better job moving the homeless into permanent housing.

“The current number of people living in city shelters and the length of stay is unacceptable,” said Levin.

He added that his committee will prioritize trying to lower the average time people need to spend in shelters — currently more than a year — down to no more than six months.

The IBO report also found that the city is stuck with most of the tab for housing single adults. In 2017, that bill came to $503 million — more than double the $245 million spent in 2013.

Shelly Nortz, deputy executive director at the Coalition for the Homeless, called on the state to do more.

She said the city’s costs have soared since the start of the Cuomo administration when “the state shifted its cost sharing way down from the original 50 percent of the non-federally reimbursed amounts for welfare and certain shelter costs to just 29 percent.”

As of Tuesday, there were 60,529 people in shelters, compared to 50,689 when Mayor de Blasio took office in January 2014.

When asked about the funding shifts, de Blasio spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg said, “We welcome state and federal support.”