You need to know some the history of Manhattan residential real estate.

There used to be such a thing as single room occupancy hotels. You know, the one's in the black & white gangster movies of the 30s & 40s wherein each room consisted of a bed, sometimes a hot plate, one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, a radiator, and one window that actually opened. The bathroom was down the hall as was the telephone. Yes, such did exist, in the thousands of rooms wherein low income people, earning $15 to $30 @ week in those days, had a decent place to live. It was gentrification, i.e., the $value of the real estate that demolished such buildings, replaced by everything from office towns to luxurious buildings due to demand of higher paying tenants. Hence, no such non-subsidized housing exists today.

Add, Depression & WWII Rent Control government decree -- later a political vote getter -- became a generational housing dependence wherein far below free market rents forced landlords of then existing buildings to minimally maintain their housing or simply abandon them wherein NYC took control. Add Rent Stabilization on newer buildings, also a rent control measure, and the housing stock of available units in NYC diminished. Hence, as it costs nearly the same to build low as high income apartment buildings, sans some luxury amenities, it is free enterprise to build only for the wealthier and better to sell their unit to them, as a condominium, than simply rent as then NYC rent regulations squeeze the landlords' ability to both maintain his building and earn any profit whatsoever.

So homeless shelters, i.e., akin to yesterday's single occupancy hotels, need come back. Though, admittedly, most of the homeless are self-inflicted, a product of drug abuse and mental health issues as the NYS public mental illness facilities statewide were largely closed years ago, same in California. So where else will the homeless now live? And now many more as indigent population increases with drug abuse.