More people are living in homeless shelters now than when Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002. On June 24th, 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled his Five Year Plan to reduce homelessness in New York City by two-thirds. The failure of Bloomberg's plan is evidence that what is needed are fundamental changes to housing policy in NYC, which is at the root of what is falsely portrayed as a homeless crisis.New York Magazine has said that his homeless policies are "the single biggest failure of the Bloomberg administration." The 2009 Mayor's Management Report found an across-the-board increase in the shelter census. As the five years of Bloomberg's plan comes to a close, this report focuses on the failures of one of its cornerstones, the Rental Subsidies Programs. Family and child homelessness have increased under these programs, even with thousands of households receiving vouchers, the rental subsidies have built-in obstacles to employment and self-sufficiency so crucial to making the transition out of the shelter system possible
