Welcome back to Leadlines, a collection of recent articles highlighting topics that are relevant to The Floating Hospital’s mission. We hope it will provide a fuller understanding of the issues that drive our work each day.

This month’s selection is reflective of a tumultuous fall in relation to affordability, food insecurity, homelessness, and other socio-economic issues. After a quiet summer, bird flu has returned and with it, concerns about Thanksgiving turkeys and egg prices increasing after easing off some in recent months.

Homelessness on the rise

Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) recently announced that more than 154,000 New York City public school students, or nearly one in every seven, experienced homelessness during the 2024–25 school year, based on New York State Education Department data. This was the 10th consecutive school year “in which more than 100,000 students did not have a permanent place to call home and the first year in which the total number of students in temporary housing exceeded 150,000.”

The advocacy group noted, “If these students comprised their own school district, it would be one of the 20 largest districts in the country.” Homelessness was described as living in temporary housing provided by the city or sharing the housing of others. “The overall rate of student homelessness rose in every borough” from last year, “and was once again the highest in Bronx schools, followed by Manhattan.”

The negative effect of homelessness on the success of students has been documented as well. From the 2023-24 school year, data shows that “more than half of all students in temporary housing and two out of three students in shelter were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least one out of every ten school days.” Further, “only 22% of students in shelter in grades 3–8 scored proficient on each of the New York State English Language Arts and math exams; in both subjects, these proficiency rates were less than half those of permanently housed students.” Students living in shelters had higher dropout rates and those who did not graduate in four years were “2.3 times more likely to experience homelessness again as young adults, compared to students who were in shelters and did graduate.”

SNAP benefits

The government shutdown had many ripple effects, some anticipated, others not. One of these consequences was that the federal government would not release emergency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and also blocked states from making up the difference. The New York Times documented the effect of these policies on New York City during a stressful and grim week when conflicting messages were coming from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which directs the program, and the state’s attempts to provide funds were thwarted by lawsuits.

The sight of people standing in lines around the block at neighborhood food pantries stretched beyond their limit, on television, social media or other news sources, captured the attention of people and sparked generosity. Whether donating to food pantries or giving out gift cards for grocery stores, Eyewitness News reported that many heeded the call to keep vulnerable communities from starving. Even supermarkets felt the pinch as a key customer base no longer had the means to pay for food. In New York State alone, 3 million people rely on food stamps to stretch their food dollars and nearly 42 million in the country do, including 16 million children. The Pew Research Center has studied the data and produced a short but illuminating report on food stamps usage in the United States.

Now that SNAP funding has been restored with the reopening of the federal government, many of these individuals and families continue to face new restrictions mandated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July. ABC News had a recent breakdown of the impacts of the law and what changes are occurring as well as their fallout.

Affordability crisis

The availability of SNAP benefits is not the only thing affecting whether families can eat. The high cost of food and other personal and household expenses: rent, fuel, healthcare, etc., continue to drive people to food banks and other food assistance. The Urban Institute reports that its research has found that “52 percent of people in American families don’t have the resources to cover what it really costs to live securely in their community.” In grocery prices alone, it said that “since 2019, the average monthly cost of groceries has risen by 32 percent, while earnings growth trailed slightly at 29 percent.”

These factors, resulting in dwindling household funds to spend, are not only affecting consumers. Small businesses and larger chain stores are reporting that they are feeling the squeeze as well. CNN said small businesses are facing the impact of “surging import costs, mounting payroll and healthcare expenses, a shortage of affordable loans and a stressed-out workforce.” Last week, Target announced it is “lowering prices on 3,000 food, beverage and essential items… From pantry staples and baby items to household essentials,” to make shopping more affordable through the holidays. Then, on November 19, the company reported a drop in sales last quarter and said it expected its sales during the holidays to decline as well.

Bird flu back in the news

Speaking of holidays, concerns about bird flu affecting the cost or supply of turkeys for Thanksgiving are warranted, but may be overblown, according to Scientific American. Two million turkeys have been lost to bird flu this season, and many media outlets like CNBC have warned that prices have soared anywhere from 25% to 40%. However, the United States turkey supply is 200 million and “economic incentives that buffer supply and pricing for consumers are among the reasons that costs will probably not rise dramatically,” Scientific American said. Retailers may still offer discounts to lure in shoppers, counting on their other purchases to make up the difference. Many retailers have also announced their Thanksgiving meal-deal packages for the year at different price points. One sign of the times is that more store brands have replaced many name brand items in those offers.

Meanwhile, a man in Washington has contracted the first-known human case of H5N5 avian flu. The risk to humans continues to remain low, according to experts. The person infected is older with underlying health conditions and was reported to be hospitalized. According to the Associated Press, the patient has a “backyard flock of domestic poultry at home that was exposed to wild birds” and two of the birds died from illness. Health officials in the state are still investigating the source, however.

After a bird flu infestation last winter that spread from one farm in Ohio to poultry farms in the area and even into Indiana, there is an increasing conviction in the poultry industry that bird flu can be spread through the air among flocks. Despite their entreaties for a vaccine after more than 18 million hens were killed, ProPublica said the USDA remains steadfast in its conviction that the virus can be stopped through safety protocols alone.

ProPublica enlisted its own experts and studied the Ohio contagion. It found that the virus that infected the surrounding farms and larger region had a unique genetic signature and that “wind was at least a plausible explanation for how the virus could have spread from farm to farm.” They vetted the findings with eight avian flu experts, who “stressed the analysis didn’t prove the wind directly carried bird flu from one farm to another, or that it was the only factor at play.” But several said the “analysis underscores the shortcomings of the government’s strategy, which fails to take the wind into account at all.”