For several freezing, early-morning hours Monday, Jan. 27, thousands of New York City volunteers patrolled the city's streets and subways looking for undocumented homeless residents.
Last year's survey reported a 13% rise to 64,060 homeless people in shelters and on the street, bucking a national trend of declining rates. This year's numbers won't be available for a few weeks.
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg failed to make a significant dent in city homelessness despite an overhaul of policies in the mid-2000s, and new Mayor Bill De Blasio made the crisis a major part of his campaign.
When Business Insider tagged along to see how the count was done, we learned that the most difficult part of helping the homeless can be finding them, particularly the thousands of chronically homeless people, who have spent at least one consecutive year without a home and typically live outside shelters and suffer mental illness, substance abuse, or physical handicap.
Volunteers were sent to all five New York City boroughs and their subways. We went to New York's Pennsylvania Station where we met dozens of people with tragic stories, needing help more than most of us can imagine.
New York City's Department of Homeless Services called for 3,000 volunteers Monday, Jan. 27, to help count the city's unsheltered homeless population.
Department of Homeless Services attorney Tonie Baez delivered the rules for the complicated task ahead.
Much of the volunteer's instructions centered around the temperature outside. When it's below freezing, during sustained winds or rain, a Code Blue calls for increased efforts from outreach teams and tonight was no different.
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