NEW YORK – A new report out of New York is offering Maine lawmakers a costly warning: homelessness policy can devour taxpayer dollars fast, especially when government spends heavily but cannot clearly show the results.
According to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, New York City’s Department of Homeless Services spent nearly $368 million in fiscal year 2025 on services for 4,504 unsheltered homeless individuals. That comes out to roughly $81,700 per unsheltered person in one year. Even more striking, spending on that population rose 262 percent since fiscal year 2019, while the unsheltered population itself increased 26 percent.
City officials point out that New York still shelters a larger share of its homeless population than most major jurisdictions, with only about 3 percent remaining unsheltered in 2024. But the comptroller’s report did not read like a victory lap. It warned that the city lacks strong enough performance metrics, outcome tracking, and transparency to show whether all that money is leading to lasting housing stability or simply sustaining a sprawling and expensive system.
That is where Maine comes in.
Maine is not operating on New York City’s scale, but the same pressures are building here: high housing costs, long shelter stays, strained providers, and a growing price tag for emergency shelter. MaineHousing’s 2026 Housing Outlook found that the number of people in shelters, unsheltered, or in transitional housing remained near 2,300 in 2025. It also found average shelter stays reached about 150 days, nearly five months, continuing a multi-year trend of longer stays as affordable housing remains out of reach for many Mainers.
The cost of sheltering people in Maine is also substantial. MaineHousing’s 2025 Shelter Cost Study estimated the statewide average cost across all ESHAP shelters at $37,312.12 per bed annually, or $102.22 per bed-night. Adult shelters averaged about $28,680 per bed each year, while low-barrier shelters averaged roughly $35,583, and youth shelters climbed to more than $64,439 per bed annually.
That means Maine is already spending real money just to maintain emergency shelter capacity, before even getting to the bigger challenge of moving people into permanent housing. And providers have warned the funding structure is badly outdated. MaineHousing told lawmakers this year that Maine has 37 ESHAP shelters statewide and that the shelter operating subsidy has not increased in about a decade, even as costs and demand have surged.
The lesson from New York is not that homelessness should be ignored. It is that taxpayers deserve more than emotional appeals and ever-rising spending. They deserve proof. They deserve data. And they deserve to know whether public money is actually helping people get off the street for good.
Maine has not hit New York City’s level of spending insanity. But the warning signs are there. Shelter stays are getting longer. Costs are rising. Housing remains scarce. And unless state leaders get serious about accountability, outcome tracking, and permanent housing solutions, Maine could find itself spending more and more money each year just to manage a crisis that never gets solved.
