The strangest thing is that NYC is a place with a very high cost of living; I couldn’t imagine traveling to some expensive LA suburb (far beyond my means) and simply turning myself in to a shelter because I can’t afford to live there.
Outside of a roaring black-market economy, I’m not sure what (besides massive “social programs”) would motivate anyone to move to NYC. Many of them are there for the “sanctuary city” reasons (they are illegals - not paying taxes but draining resources); without infusions of them NYC would be undergoing “Detroitification”.
In the late 70’s a company I worked for used day labor companies for extra workers needed for the day. We called them “rent a wino”.
One guy was in his 30’s and had never been outside of Houston's downtown in his entire life. He had never even gone past the 610 loop to find out what was on the other side. He was born to bums who themselves had been born to bums.
He actually thought the entire world looked like downtown Houston. He had never seen open space without buildings in his entire life.
When he saw what Houston looked like from a distance he went absolutely nuts and they had to take him back to the shop.