Nearly 5,000 New Yorkers slept on the city’s streets, subways or parks this year — the highest number recorded in more than a decade and an increase of more than 400 people from last year, city data shows.
The Department of Social Services Thursday released its yearly Homeless Outreach Population Survey, or HOPE count, which measures how many people slept outside on a single night. The count does not include the homeless population residing in shelters.
The annual count is required by federal law. While the tally is supposed to take place on the coldest night of the year to measure how many homeless residents are opting out of the city’s shelter system, this year it happened in March when temperatures were unusually warm. The count was postponed from January because of a stretch of dangerously frigid weather…