I think they overdid it a bit? That's just a supposition on my part.
U.S. Homeless Count Surges 18% to Record High
Migrant influx, high housing costs and people displaced by natural disasters fueled the increase
By Jon Kamp, WSJ
Updated Dec. 27, 2024 3:42 pm ET
The nation’s homelessness problem worsened again this year.
A record estimate of 771,480 people were homeless in the U.S. in 2024, an 18% increase from a year earlier, fueled by factors including an influx of migrant families, a lack of affordable housing and natural disasters, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
It’s the largest number since the U.S. began publishing comparable data in 2007. The Wall Street Journal reported in September that preliminary numbers from around the U.S. were pointing to a record high.
The numbers come from so-called point-in-time counts that are conducted around the country early each year to estimate how many people are living in shelters or on the street during a single night.
The latest estimate surpasses last year’s figure of more than 653,000 people, a then-record which HUD attributed to limited affordable housing, the opioid epidemic and the expiration of pandemic-era aid.
These estimates are widely considered to be undercounts—foul weather or a shortage of volunteers can make work tougher, and the numbers don’t include people who are temporarily staying with friends or family—but they are still an important, nationwide metric that HUD reports to Congress each year.
HUD said these counts from January may not reflect the current environment, since unlawful border crossings are down significantly since then.
The increase in homelessness also reflects high housing costs, the report said. Pandemic-era bans on evictions ended while rental costs rose in many communities. Since January, HUD said, rents have stabilized or dropped in many cities.
The nation’s mental health crisis is a contributing factor. Chronic homelessness, a term for people who have a disability such as mental illness, and are homeless either repeatedly or for long periods, rose 6.6%.
The increase in homelessness was largely fueled by the number of people in shelters and other temporary housing. While the number of homeless people on the streets without shelter rose 6.9% to more than 274,000, those who had shelter rose 25% to more than 497,000. Many communities reporting the largest increases in the sheltered group said it was due to immigration or natural disasters. Overall, the number of homeless people in families with children rose 39%.
In New York City, for example, people seeking asylum accounted for 88% of the increase in the shelter population, the report said. The city is now closing more than two dozen shelters as the number of people seeking asylum declines. The report noted that Chicago and Denver have said they are ending their migrant-shelter systems.
The devastating wildfire in Maui in August 2023 also led to more than 5,000 people in disaster emergency shelters in Hawaii.
A bright spot was a 7.6% decrease in homelessness among veterans, to the lowest number on record—nearly 33,000. The agency said it has helped connect nearly 90,000 veteran households with rental homes this year through a voucher program known as HUD-VASH.
The states with the biggest homeless populations were California, with more than 187,000, and New York, with over 158,000.
Tali Arbel contributed to this article.
Comments