Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and the Bloomberg administration are clashing over Ms. Gotbaum’s new report that criticizes local homeless shelters for turning away homeless families.

The report says 278 families were turned away between October and March due to the city’s Department of Homeless Services’s new policy that refuses shelter to those who arrive after 5 p.m. and who according to city records have other housing available to them. Because more than half of those families later proved eligible for shelter, the report concludes the department’s admission process is flawed.

The department maintains that the new Bloomberg administration policy prevents families who have other housing options from taking up shelter space that others need more.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeless Services said that only 107 out of the 278 families were turned down shelter in that time period, and the rest of the late arrivers were granted shelter the night they arrived after providing new information, such as fear of domestic abuse in their other residence.

“The numbers referenced in this report are, in fact, inaccurate,” a spokeswoman for the department, Heather Janik, said in a statement.

Ms. Gotbaum said in a statement that because the families are originally ruled ineligible, they spend time reapplying, which sometimes keeps their children out of school.