Imagine someone paying top dollar for you to stay in a hotel room and still going hungry. That’s the reality for many homeless families in New York who are placed in hotels. New York Focus and ProPublica found that, from April 2023 to March 2024, the state’s social service agencies placed just under half the 34,000 individuals and families receiving emergency shelter outside New York City in hotels. Statewide spending on hotels more than tripled over that period to $110 million, according to an analysis of state temporary housing data. In total, hotels outside New York City were paid about $420 million to shelter unhoused people from 2017 to 2024. Listen to ProPublica and New York Focus reporter Spencer Norris break down his investigation into how hotels became New York’s default answer to homelessness. #newyork #newyorkstate #binghamton #homelessness #shelters