That was the good news.

The city's annual survey of the homeless, a one-night census conducted in January, did show a decrease of 2.5 percent in the number of people estimated to be living in streets, parks and other public places, from 3,262 in 2012 to 3,180 this year. Since 2005, when the survey began, the number of people living in the open has fallen by 28 percent.

According to the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), City Limits' reporting on both stories was among the best examples in 2011 of reporting that was able to "skillfully bring home to us the critical issues that affect justice and safety in our nation.”

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What's more, the GAO found, VA's existing data on women veterans was spotty, making it hard to "plan services effectively, allocate grants to providers, and track progress toward its overall goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015.

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The plan, by the Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness, says the current shelter system works fairly well for the roughly 50 percent of homeless families who need help only because of a temporary financial emergency.

But the rest of the homeless population, the report says, needs more help. Some 35 percent require a longer housing stay.

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The decision on the Work Advantage Program was "bad news, but the legal fight is still not over," says Coalition for the Homeless senior policy analyst Patrick Markee.

The Work Advantage Program helped formerly homeless people rent apartments by providing up to two years of subsidies. In this year's state budget, Albany withdrew its one-third share of the $200 million annual funding for the program, a move that also eliminated federal support for it. The Bloomberg administration then stopped adding new renters to the program and planned to stop payments for people already participating. Advocates went to court to block the move, and a judge ordered payments to continue while the case played out.

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One potential casualty of the proposed cuts is the Momentum Project, a volunteer-run organization that has been helping people with AIDS and HIV since 1985. Donnell Tillman-Basket, director of client services at Momentum, said that if the organization does wind up closing, the results would be disastrous.

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