Posted on November 17, 2016 by Jennifer Fermino, Erin Durkin and Reuven Blau in New York Daily News New York Daily News, By Jennifer Fermino, Erin Durkin and Reuven Blau Despite a record rate of homeless in New York City, homelessness across the country has continued to decline over the past seven years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday. There were 549,928 homeless people on a single night in January 2016, a 14% drop since 2010, the year the Obama administration started Opening Doors, a broad plan to combat homelessness.