No, New York City’s homeless children do not outnumber Yankee Stadium seats

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has recently promoted her policies on expanding affordable child care. 

Hochul has twice increased funding for the state’s runaway and homeless youth services. At a March 5 event, Hochul joined Christine Quinn, president and chief executive officer of Women in Need — a privately run group that is the largest provider of family shelter and supportive housing in New York City — to discuss connections between homelessness and child care shortages.

Quinn — a former New York City Council speaker — said in a press release about the event, "Today, there are more children sleeping in New York City’s homeless shelters than there are seats in Yankee Stadium and 3,600 children sleeping in Win shelters each night — that is a tragedy."

Quinn’s comparison is inaccurate.

Yankee Stadium, the Bronx home of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, seats 46,543, making it the league’s fifth-largest.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services regularly publishes data on how many people are living in the city’s homeless shelters at a point in time. On May 8, the data showed about 28,600 children in shelters that night. A sampling of other dates in March and April show similar numbers, always below 30,000.

A spokesperson for Women in Need — which operates shelters in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens — offered no information to support Quinn’s statement. The organization’s website says, "More than 32,300 children will go to bed in a City shelter tonight." 

Children account for a fraction of the city’s homeless shelter population. 

On typical recent days, the total shelter population — including adults and children — ranged from 82,000 to 86,000. 

In addition, people living or sleeping in New York City’s homeless shelters are a fraction of the total homeless population. 

Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group, says more than 250,000 New Yorkers are living in doubled-up housing, which means they are temporarily sharing space with another family after losing their own home. And according to Advocates for Children of New York, more than 154,000 New York City public school students experienced homelessness at some point during the 2024-25 school year. 

Our ruling

Quinn said, "Today, there are more children sleeping in New York City’s homeless shelters than there are seats in Yankee Stadium."

Recent New York City government statistics show that the total shelter population, adults and children, on any given night is between 82,000 and 86,000. The number of children counted is consistently around 28,000, and the website of Quinn’s group puts the number at around 32,000. That’s less than Yankee Stadium’s 46,543 seating capacity.

We rate the statement False.