evidence: The substantial increase in the number of families in the city’s homeless shelters during the tenure of the Bloomberg Administration has been well documented. Far less is generally known about the living situations of those families just before entering the shelter system: Why were families granted eligibility for shelter and have the reasons changed over time? What type of housing did they live in and were families in overcrowded apartments? Which neighborhoods did they come from? [...] When Mayor Bill de Blasio took the oath of office on New Year’s Day he assumed control of a homeless shelter system with a record high population; that month an average of 10,611 families with children slept in the city’s shelter system each night. When Mayor Michael Bloomberg began his first term 12 years earlier (January 2002), an average of about 6,500 families with children slept in shelters each night. Despite launching an ambitious plan in 2004 to reform the city’s approach to homeless services and end chronic homelessness in 10 years, the number of families with children living in the city’s homeless shelter system increased dramatically during the Bloomberg Administration. [...] Two policy decisions by the Bloomberg Administration made finding permanent housing more difficult. First, the city switched from a policy of prioritizing homeless families for federal housing subsidies to providing a rental subsidy for some families leaving shelter, only to end the rental subsidy program a few years later.