It is America’s biggest city, home to world-famous sights from the Empire State building to Broadway. For many it is synonymous with the American Dream.

But that is only one face of New York. The other is the estimated 75,000 people, according to US department of housing and urban development figures, who are homeless in the Big Apple.

The Coalition for the Ho-meless, a non-profit organisation, says that in recent years homelessness in the city has hit its highest levels since the 1930s Great Depression.

New York City Hall counts its numbers slightly differently, but either way, the ho-melessness issue is a growing embarrassment for mayor Bill de Blasio, who stands accused by some of underestimating the scale of the problem.

Gilbert Taylor, commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, became the latest high-ranking official to pay the price for failing to get a grip on what many New Yorkers say is a growing legion of homeless people in the city. Another official resigned in Septem-ber. “It is a problem that no-w goes back in this city, 30 and 40 years,” Mr de Blasio said, defending his record on the homeless and warning that “this will be a long fight, this is a challenge th-at will not be solved easily.” He added: “More and more of our homeless are homel-ess for economic reasons, not because of substance abuse or mental health problems.”

Mr De Blasio, who called for a thorough review, highlighted the efforts of his administration to get people off the streets and into their own homes — a severe challenge in a city where wages have failed to keep pace with some of the highest rental prices in the world. New York is legally required to provide housing for those without it.

City hall initiatives incl-ude a plans to build apartments for the homeless, while in the near term there are additional shelter beds, longer hours for drop-in centers and expanded outreach programmes, among a raft of measures.