Officials say no single factor explains the increase in families seeking shelter.
Likely explanations include sharply rising housing costs in an economic boom, a subway advertisement campaign that encourages victims of domestic violence to seek help, more court orders for eviction, and declines in subsidized housing, said Martin Oesterreich, the city's commissioner of homeless services. The number of family shelter applicants has grown 10 percent in the last year alone, he said. That's not to say that I may not be proven wrong, and that this is instead a major shift in family homelessness. The increase, Mr. Oesterreich stressed, is part of a national trend. He cited a 25-city survey by the United States Conference of Mayors that calculated a 17 percent rise in the number of families applying for help because of homelessness.