The number of homeless shelters across NYC exploded nearly 50% in the last four years from 333 to 499, as Gotham’s vagrant population doubled and its shelter industrial complex bled $4 billion in taxpayer money in a single year.

Shelters set aside for single adults – which critics say are the most problematic facilities because they are more likely than family shelters to bring violent criminals to neighborhoods – surged 35%, from 155 to 209, a Post review of Department of Homeless Services data found.

What’s worse is there is no end to the perpetually growing problem, according to critics, who blame the administration of socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other lefty pols for pushing policies that lead to more homelessness.

“These numbers are the unfortunate side effect of politicians and their followers putting ideology over reality,” said Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens). “Things like rent control might sound great on paper, but in reality, they mean less residential development, and fewer units on the market as landlords don’t have the funds needed to renovate when a tenant moves out.

“All of this means the housing shortage gets even worse, and the men and women in our shelter systems are the sad result of these policy failures.”

The DHS recently reported 83,407 residents in its shelter system – including 26,266 single adults and the rest families with children and adults.

That’s double the number of homeless residents who were sleeping in city shelters daily on average during the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022 – 42,563, which included 16,465 single men and women, records show.

The number of shelters soared from 333 in fiscal 2022 to 496 by fiscal 2024 as the city’s daily homeless population surged to an average of 86,321, including 20,468 single adults.

At the time, the city was still dealing with a migrant crisis so overwhelming that the number of vagrants on some days reached above 130,000.

The brunt of the crisis is largely behind the Big Apple, and the total number of shelters has remained steady since 2024, yet Mamdani is still planning to spend more money on homeless services this fiscal year than his predecessor Eric Adams did during the height of the crisis.

Mamdani’s DHS budget is a whopping $4.2 billion, up $700 million from the previous year and $100 million more than in 2024, when the agency was slammed hardest by asylum seekers.

DHS spokesman Nicholas Jacobelli, however, insisted Mamdani has taken “decisive action” to transform “the sprawling shelter system” he inherited “by beginning to phase out the use of commercial hotels for families with children, aging or substandard facilities, like the 30^th Street Intake Center and Bruckner Boulevard emergency shelter, that are unsafe for single adults, and equitably siting new, high-quality shelters across the city.

“We are committed to creating safer, dignified settings for all the populations we serve, which includes placing more families in facilities that better support their needs,” he said.

Some of the Gotham’s poorest neighborhoods – including Brownsville and East New York in Brooklyn and Hollis, Queens – are feeling the brunt.

As of June 30, Brooklyn had the most homeless shelters (153), followed by The Bronx (136), Queens (113), Manhattan (90) and Staten Island (7), according to the latest available data. The Borough of Kings is also home to the most adult shelters with 77, followed by Queens (48), The Bronx (41), Manhattan (41) and Staten Island (3).

Queens Community Board 12 — which includes Jamaica, Hollis, and St. Albans – had the largest cluster of homeless shelters with 35. Other sections of the Big Apple saturated with shelters include Brooklyn’s CB 16 in Brownsville with 28, and CB 5 in East New York and New Lots with 25.

The most adult shelters are in Brooklyn CB 5 (14), followed by Queens CB 12 (13), Brooklyn CB 16 (12), Manhattan Community Board 10 in Central Harlem (10) and Bronx CB 3 in Morrisania and Crotona Park (9).

Over a year-long period ending June 30, the number of adult shelters jumped 19%, from 175 to 209, including 15 added since Mamdani took office in January.

This doesn’t include the DHS’s conversion two months ago of a shelter for 55 families in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, into a 110-bed site for single men, which has drawn mass community uproar because of its close proximity to a neighborhood playground.

Councilwoman Inna Vernikov (R-Brooklyn), Assemblyman Kalman Yeger (D-Brooklyn) and other community leaders filed a lawsuit on July 24 seeking to block the conversion.

Those communities spared shelters so far include Manhattan’s CB 2 in tony Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District, Staten Island’s CB 3 on the South Shore, and Brooklyn’s CB 10 and 11, which covers the southern part of the borough from Bay Ridge to Bensonhurst.

A 150-bed men’s shelter in planned for Bensonhurst on 25^th Avenue has been held up by protests for more than three years, and there are also plans in the works to build a 105-bed men’s shelter in Bay Ridge on Fourth Avenue near the Gowanus Expressway.

Deputy Council Speaker Nantasha Williams, who represents much of Queens CB 12, said, “No one community should be expected to shoulder a disproportionate share of the city’s shelter system,” adding her constituents “have consistently raised concerns about public safety, sanitation, mental health outreach, and overall quality of life in this area.”

However, Jacobelli insisted DHS “is committed to the equitable distribution of shelter facilities.”