Mayor Attends Lunch With Homeless Families

REPORTER: Mayor Bloomberg attended the annual Christmas Eve lunch for homeless families at City Hall restaurant today. He made his way around the crowded dining room, shaking hands with mothers and holding babies for the cameras. The Mayor stopped to talk to Bianca Lynch and Martin Bradley. Both were pleased to meet him:

LYNCH / BRADLEY: I was so happy to see him face to face how he say he was going out to dinner tonight with his girlfriend and his ex-wife. He have older kids like 25, 26 years old. That's cool right there. My mayor got two friends together like that. That's really cool.

REPORTER: The city's latest statistics show there's been a 40% increase in homeless families seeking shelter over the past 5 months. The mayor says the city is handling the increased demand for shelter, but he says things are only going to get tougher.