New York City Bar Association

A survey of current and former homeless shelter residents in New York City showed that only 6% were able to access the internet via their shelter, according to a report released by the City Bar Justice Center, which argues for the city to provide reliable Wi-Fi and updated internet-ready devices to shelter residents in order to fight the city's growing homelessness problem.

In a news release announcing the report, the Justice Center, part of a New York City Bar Association nonprofit affiliate, also pointed out repeatedly that insufficient internet access at shelters had become a more immediate and "further hardship" for homeless families as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the city to close its schools "in favor of remote education."

"The problem of no or limited internet access in shelters has been front and center during the COVID crisis," said Lisa Pearlstein, director of the Justice Center's Legal Clinic for the Homeless Project, in the news release.

"These children should have had internet access all along," she said, "so they could complete their school assignments as easily as their more fortunate peers."

She also said that shelter-residing parents "should not have to pay from their limited cash assistance or earnings for internet hot spots or cellular plans to enable them to look for jobs or apartments that would enable the family to exit shelter."

The 13-page report, sent out by the City Bar Justice Center on Tuesday as a link in the release, said that it was based on a client survey it conducted in 2019 of current and former city family shelter residents in Manhattan and the Bronx.

Its finding included that of 84 current and former homeless people surveyed, 67% wanted but had no internet access at their shelters, and 75% said that access to the internet "would enable shelter residents to improve their circumstances, assisting in their efforts to find permanent housing, jobs, and other benefits."

In a recommendations section, the report said that the city should provide, in every city-run shelter, "(1) reliable Wi-Fi connections, (2) updated Internet-ready computers, tablets, or other word processing devices, and (3) Wireless or Bluetooth printers, or printers that maintain connection with the shelter's computers, tablets or other word processing devices."

"While NYC homeless shelters provide temporary housing for individuals, the mission of [the city Department of Homeless services] is to prevent homelessness and to help NYC residents regain independent living in the community," the report also said.

In an executive summary section, the report said that "during the 2018 fiscal year [in the city], 133,284 different homeless men, women, and children slept in the NYC municipal shelter system, including over 45,600 different homeless NYC children," and that "as recently as September 2019, an average of 62,391 homeless people, including 14,962 homeless families with 22,083 homeless children, slept each night in the NYC municipal shelter system."

The report, dated May 2020, is titled "Homeless Need Internet Access to Find a Home: How Access to Internet and Technology Resources Can Support Homeless Families Transition out of Homeless Shelters."