NYC's Growing Homeless Population

This is in today's LA Times,

[New York] City officials, faced with a rapidly expanding number of homeless and a court order that requires New York to provide temporary shelter for any person who needs it, have come up with the novel plan to use old cruise ships as just one of several solutions to a chronic housing shortage.

...New York has more than 36,000 homeless people, the highest number in years, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. And although [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg has dismissed the notion that the problem is getting worse, New York has been hard-pressed to find suitable housing for this growing population.

More than 16,000 of them are under the age of 18, and an additional 12,000 are mothers, according to agency figures. The city will conduct a census of the homeless this winter in an effort to arrive at a more accurate number.

"I thought I'd heard it all when it comes to New York dealing with the homeless, but I guess I haven't," said Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst with the coalition. "I think most New Yorkers will hear this latest idea and say to themselves, 'There's got to be a better way than using cruise ships,' and of course there is."

New York is paying "a very stiff price" for the nearly 40% cutback in temporary housing assistance programs mandated by the previous administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, he said. Bloomberg has pledged to restore much of that funding, including renovation of city-funded apartments and federal Section 8 housing assistance programs, Markee added, "but right now we have an exploding homeless population and we need real programs to help them."