When Homework Consists of Finding a Home

Hundreds of Students Enrolled in Lower Manhattan Schools Live in Temporary Housing

Last year, Lower Manhattan schools enrolled more than 300 students who resided in temporary housing, such as homeless shelters. The Spruce Street School—shown here in an image from the school's X (formerly Twitter) account—had 18 such students.

More than 300 students attending various Lower Manhattan public schools are either homeless or nearly homeless, according to statistics compiled by the City’s Department of Education. Under federal law, the DOE tracks the number of students in “temporary housing,” a broad range of categories that includes residing in a homeless shelter or transitional shelter; a hotel or motel; a park or public place; a car, bus or train; or an abandoned building. This catchment also includes students who are “doubled up,” meaning they are staying with friends or relatives because they cannot find or afford housing. While several of these categories conform to what most laypersons would define as “homelessness,” others are often described by social workers as “housing insecure,” and are known to be strong statistical predictors of homelessness.

Recently released DOE statistics for the 2022-23 academic year (the most recent for which data are available) indicate that 301 students at ten elementary, middle, and high schools in Lower Manhattan are in temporary housing. Among these, 184 are doubled up, 87 are living in homeless shelters, and the remaining 30 are scattered across other categories.

Among local elementary and middle schools, Tribeca’s P.S. 234 had six students in temporary housing, while the Spruce Street School had 18. The DOE had no data for P.S. 150, P.S./I.S. 276, or the Peck Slip School. The Lower Manhattan Community Middle School (at 26 Broadway) had 19 students in temporary housing, 12 of whom were in shelters, with the remaining seven doubled up.

For local high schools, Stuyvesant High School had 65 students in temporary housing (ten in shelters and 49 doubled up), Millennium High School had 33, the Richard R. Green High School of Teaching had 26, and the Urban Assembly Harbor School had 17.

High schools with higher percentages of students in temporary housing (even when absolute numbers were similar, lower overall enrollment led to higher percentages) included the Leadership and Public Service High School (32 students), the High School of Economics and Finance (71), and Murry Bergtraum High School (14).

A DOE spokesman cautions that these metrics may be incomplete, and likely do not fully reflect tallies of students housed in immigrant refugee facilities, which are shifting continually.

Matthew Fenton

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DOWNTOWN CALENDAR

Wednesday, March 6

9:30am-11:15am

Kindie Rock

6 River Terrace

Performers lead families with little ones in rocking sing-a-longs.

12pm

Tour Poets House

10 River Terrace

Tour the newly reopened Poets House. Free.

1pm

Adult Chorus

200 Rector Place

Directed by the Church Street School of Music and open to all. Learn contemporary and classic songs and perform at community events throughout the year. Free.

1pm

Bach at One: St. John Passion

St. Paul's Chapel

The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra perform Bach's St. John Passion, BWV 245 Part 2, “Schauet doch und sehet,” BWV 46, Kyrie in F Major, BWV 233a. Free.

2pm-4pm

Figure Drawing

6 River Terrace

A model will strike poses for participants to draw and educators will offer constructive suggestions. Materials provided. Free.

6pm

God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America

9/11 Memorial & Museum

Book discussion. Acts of terrorism tied to far-right extremists have increased dramatically in recent years. In their book, God, Guns, and Sedition: Far-Right Terrorism in America, Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware trace the trajectory of this violent ideology, highlight its tactics, and outline the dangers it poses to our national security. Free.

6pm

St. Patrick's Day Celebration

New York City Council, City Hall

Celebration by Council members. Open to the public. RSVP required. Free.

6:30pm

The Riddles of the Sphinx

McNally Jackson, 4 Fulton Street

Anna Shechtman presents The Riddles of the Sphinx, in conversation with Merve Emre. Combining the soul-baring confessional of Brain on Fire and the addictive storytelling of The Queen’s Gambit, a renowned puzzle creator’s compulsively readable memoir and history of the crossword puzzle as an unexpected site of women’s work and feminist protest.

7pm

NOVUS Renewal: The Transformative Work of Rehabilitation Through the Arts

St. Paul's Chapel

This performance features Rehabilitation Through the Arts alumni fusing music, spoken word, visual arts, and discussion around how people in prison develop critical life skills through exposure to the arts. Free.

Thursday, March 7

11am

Meet Me in the Kitchen: Making Healthy Choices

Asphalt Green, 212 North End Avenue

Nutritionist Lauren C. Kelly offers creative twists on classic recipes, food prep and cooking trends. Free program, space is limited, registration required.

2:30pm-4:30pm

It Happened Here: St. Paul's Chapel: Places Over Time

St. Paul's Chapel

St. Paul’s Chapel opened in 1766 and has been continuously operating since then. It survived the fire of 1776 and 9/11, and was where many of the founding fathers prayed, including George Washington who famously went there after his inauguration on April 30, 1789. Join cultureNOW, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association, the Federal Hall Conservancy, and Trinity Wall Street for an afternoon symposium highlighting the chapel's cultural richness. RSVP required.

4pm-8pm

Brews at Brookfield Place

Winter Garden

All beer sales benefiting the GO Project.

5:30pm

Amil

Perelman Performing Arts Center lobby

Amil is a NYC-based DJ. Free.

6pm

Community Board One's Battery Park City Committee

Livestreamed

Agenda:

• South Battery Park City construction
• BPC Parks Operations Spring preview
• BPC security update
• Programming, construction and event updates
• North BPC traffic and parking issues

6pm

Fresh Prints Open House

Bowne & Co., 211 Water Street

This open house will feature a breadth of printing equipment that visitors will be invited to use. Free.

6:30pm

It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over

McNally Jackson, 4 Fulton Street

Anne de Marcken presents It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over, in conversation with Hilary Leichter. This life-after-death novel asks us to consider how much of our memory, of our bodies, of the world as we know it — how much of what we love can we lose before we are lost?

2010 photograph © Robert Simko

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