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Who is at fault for the amount of homeless people in this country?

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Government

Homeless People

Citizens of cities with homeless people

Families of homeless people

EVERYONE

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Anti-homeless architecture

Cost of living

Job accessibility

Drugs on the streets/addiction

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 The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counted around 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022. That’s about 18 per 10,000 people in the US, up about 2,000 people from 2020.

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 The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counted around 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022. That’s about 18 per 10,000 people in the US, up about 2,000 people from 2020.

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There are separate homelessness counts for sheltered and unsheltered people.

An annual point-of-time count of unsheltered people (an unduplicated count on a single night of the homeless people in a locality) happens in the last week of January. HUD chose January because shelter use is highest in this month, so it expects a more accurate count of people who are truly unsheltered rather than including those who intermittently go in and out of a shelter.

Localities approach point-in-time counts differently. Many use a public places count, where volunteers and workers visit locations where homeless people are believed to congregate. Police officers are sometimes used to help identify survey locations or access potentially dangerous areas, such as abandoned buildings. However, police presence can also cause homeless individuals to be less forthcoming with information.

There are several drawbacks of public places counts. First, they rely on a known list of places where homeless people may gather, which could lead to an undercount. People living in cars or checking in and out of motels are missed. People may also deliberately hide to avoid the count.

Some localities take a service-based approach, counting use of food pantries, soup kitchens, and social service agencies, and other non-shelter services. However, this requires significant screening to make sure only homeless individuals are counted. It also misses people who never use these services.

Sheltered homeless individuals are easier to track because they more consistently interact with government resources. The Homeless Management Information Systems track characteristics of people using homeless services such as emergency shelters and transitional housing. Some localities also supplement this data with surveys.

While more consistent than unsheltered counts, sheltered counts also face challenges. Rural homeless services providers struggle with understaffing and lack of technology infrastructure, communication, and transportation over large geographical areas. This also excludes people staying with family members or friends due to lack of other options, children living in emergency foster care or detention facilities, or adults in criminal justice facilities.

Counting homeless individuals is difficult, but more regular quality checks could improve accuracy. A 2020 report from the GAO found that both sheltered and unsheltered counts are likely an underestimate.

Read more about standard of living in the US, the states with the most homelessness and homelessness among students, and get the facts every week by signing up for our newsletter.

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How many homeless people are in the US? What does the data miss? - USAFacts

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The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counted around 582,000 Americans experiencing homelessness in 2022. That's about 18 per 10,000 people in the US, up about 2,000 people from 2020.

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8-10 objects that will change your perspective on homelessness

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8-10 objects that will change your perspective on homelessness

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1. Most homeless people have experienced trauma and that makes their lives living with no home so much worse

2. Children experiencing homelessness are at risk for emotional and behavioral problems.

3. Drug addicts that are homeless have a very tough time because they don't stop trying to buy drugs with the little money they have

4. Parents try to use the little money they have to feed and clothe their children

5. Harsh weathers are something homeless people just cant escape and have to deal with it

6. Sleeping with no bed takes a toll on the body after a while and the cement ground makes their body's ache after time

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Shelters across the U.S. are reporting a surge in people looking for help, with wait lists doubling or tripling in recent months. The number of homeless people outside of shelters is also probably rising, experts say. Some of them live in encampments, which have popped up in parks and other public spaces in major cities from Washington, D.C., to Seattle since the pandemic began.

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Shelters across the U.S. are reporting a surge in people looking for help, with wait lists doubling or tripling in recent months. The number of homeless people outside of shelters is also probably rising, experts say. Some of them live in encampments, which have popped up in parks and other public spaces in major cities from Washington, D.C., to Seattle since the pandemic began.

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The homelessness crisis is getting worse.

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HUD is the main federal agency that works to address homelessness. It provides funding for emergency shelters, permanent housing, and transitional housing. In the event of a disaster, people experiencing homelessness, who may be in shelters or living on the streets, may be vulnerable and most severely affected.

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HUD is the main federal agency that works to address homelessness. It provides funding for emergency shelters, permanent housing, and transitional housing. In the event of a disaster, people experiencing homelessness, who may be in shelters or living on the streets, may be vulnerable and most severely affected.

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Over 580,000 people experienced homelessness in 2022, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The homeless population has...

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Many Americans’ personal experience suggests that wages have not kept up with the cost of living in recent decades. 

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Many Americans’ personal experience suggests that wages have not kept up with the cost of living in recent decades. 

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Americans have been complaining about the cost of living since the Colonial days. But actually measuring it, and determining how it changes over time, have always been a challenge. It was just a century ago, in 1921, that the U.S. government started publishing a national Consumer Price Index (CPI), based on living costs across major cities.

The CPI remains the most-quoted measure of living costs today, providing a record of how costs have changed from year to year and ample evidence for the complainers that few things are as cheap as they once were. It is also used as a proxy for inflation in adjusting union wages, Social Security payments, income tax brackets, and other financial calculations that play a major role in Americans' lives.

The Evolution of Cost-of-Living Measures

Soon after its creation by Congress in 1884, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started to collect data on Americans' cost of living. In the late 1880s, it recorded how much money 8,544 families were spending each year, along with the current retail prices for 215 commodities.

As the years went by, BLS data collection became more sophisticated in its statistical methods and more ambitious in its scale. The results often were used in labor disputes between employers and unions to help determine wage increases. The notion, at least on the part of unions and their members, was that workers deserved a living wage for their toil.

The Early Days of the CPI

The CPI, as we know it, got its start during World War I, when the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board used BLS data to establish a fair wage scale for workers in U.S. shipyards. Their labor was considered so essential to the war effort that the government didn't want to risk any strikes or work stoppages for higher pay. Before long, the BLS had expanded its purview to other industries, collecting data on household spending for 12,000 families in cities across the U.S. and the prices of more than 140 goods and services.

The BLS began publishing that data in 1919 and, in 1921, introduced it in a format similar to today's CPI. In its early years, it was referred to as the Cost-of-Living Index. In 1945, it became the Consumers' Price Index for Moderate Income Families in Large Cities, soon shortened to the Consumer Price Index.

The CPI has continued to evolve as the country, and its political winds, changed over the decades. For example, the BLS took new-car and home appliance prices out of the equation during World War II, since neither was widely available and increased the weighting that it gave to car repair and mass-transit costs.

In the 1950s, it added the new wonders of frozen foods and television sets to its price lists. In the 1960s, it expanded its data collection to include single-person households. It also made numerous adjustments to its weightings and other technical details.

The New CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)

In 1978, the BLS introduced the CPI for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, and renamed the existing one the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. The new CPI-U intended to be more reflective of the living costs of the majority of Americans.

In 2002, the BLS unveiled the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or C-CPI-U. A primary difference between it and the other CPIs is that it accounts for changes in what consumers put in their shopping baskets as prices on individual commodities rise or fall. For example, if beef becomes expensive, then consumers might buy more fish or chicken, and vice versa.

The Experimental Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E)

Along the way, the BLS also began to develop still another CPI, the Experimental Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), and published data for it back to 1982. Meant to track the living costs of Americans ages 62 and older, it uses different weightings to account, for example, for that group's higher medical costs. However, the BLS still considers it experimental because of limitations to its data.

Criticisms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Many of the changes to the CPI have resulted from criticisms of its methods and its accuracy as a measure of inflation. Those criticisms continue to this day.

As the BLS itself concedes, the CPI is often faulted for not reflecting the experience of some population groups. Also, the list of items that consumers spend their money on can lag behind what they're actually buying, especially as hot new products come on the market.

And, while the CPI may do a reasonably good job of capturing the experience of Americans overall, it can be way off the mark for any given individual. "Those consumers whose market baskets are different from the average basket will probably experience inflation that is different from the CPI measure," the BLS noted in 2012. "In recent years, someone with high expenditures on gasoline and medical care experienced much higher inflation than someone who spent heavily on furniture, apparel, and electronics."

Perhaps not surprisingly, some critics charge that the CPI tends to exaggerate inflation, while others maintain just the opposite.

How the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Affects You

Whatever its limitations, the CPI plays a central role in many Americans' lives. For example, collective bargaining agreements often include cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) derived from the CPI. Employers with nonunionized workers also may consult the CPI in setting their own wage increases.

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients are eligible for an increase in their benefits each year, based on any rise in the CPI-W from the prior year. If the CPI-W doesn't increase, as was the case in 2016, then they receive no increase. The increase for 2023 is 8.7%.

The CPI can also affect how your income is taxed. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) adjusts marginal income tax brackets each year in accordance with changes in the chained CPI.

However, not every government agency uses one of the CPIs to approximate inflation. The Federal Reserve Board, for example, uses the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, an alternative measure produced by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which it sees as more accurate for its purposes.

Those interested in learning more about the cost of living and other financial topics may want to consider enrolling in one of the best personal finance classes.

Consumer Prices and Household Incomes

While the CPI is a factor in determining the incomes of many Americans, it is far from the only one. Our research finds that both consumer prices and household incomes generally rise over time, but hardly in lockstep.

As the top graph below shows, the CPI tends to rise at a fairly smooth pace over time (although the inflation-wracked 1970s accelerated the curve, as the graph also makes clear). But as the second graph shows, household incomes follow a more jagged path, even declining for periods of time, such as during recessions.

What's more, even seemingly small annual increases in the cost of living can add up over the years, much the way that compound interest works. For example, the CPI-U rose at a relatively modest rate through the 2010s, with an annualized increase of 1.4% a year over the decade. All the same, the BLS' CPI Inflation Calculator shows that $100 in January 2010 was equivalent to the purchasing power of $118.59 at the end of 2019.

Are Americans Falling Behind?

Many Americans' personal experience suggests that wages have not kept up with the cost of living in recent decades. The data, however, are more nuanced. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, "today's real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago." But the report also noted, "what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers."

That wages have more or less kept up with inflation is not necessarily good news-especially in a country that has long prided itself on being a land of opportunity, where people who work hard can expect to see their standard of living improve over time. Economists refer to it as wage stagnation.

Wage growth has barely budged for Americans toward the bottom of the economic pyramid, a phenomenon now recognized as income inequality. Workers who earn the minimum wage have been particularly disadvantaged. Some states tie their minimum wage to the CPI, while others leave it to their legislators to decide when increases are merited. The federal government takes the latter approach, and raising the minimum wage is a contentious political issue.

Because the federal government has been slow to raise the minimum wage, some workers have seen a substantial decline in their inflation-adjusted incomes. In 2022, the most recently-available data, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 was worth 18% less than when it was last raised in 2009, after adjusting for the costs of living. In 1968, the average minimum wage worker earned $10.59 per hour in inflation-adjusted terms, which is 46% more than what workers earn today. "The minimum wage today would be over $22 per hour had it tracked productivity increases over the last five decades."

So while many Americans may complain about the cost of living, some have more to complain about than others.

What Is the Cost of Living Increase for 2023?

What States Have the Lowest Cost of Living?

What Is Income Inequality?

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Learn the relationship among the cost of living, the government's Consumer Price Index, inflation, and Americans' household incomes.

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The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that real average hourly earnings for all workers increased 0.5% from September 2022 to September 2023. But they worked fewer hours, indicating an actual decrease of 0.1% in the period. 

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The latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that real average hourly earnings for all workers increased 0.5% from September 2022 to September 2023. But they worked fewer hours, indicating an actual decrease of 0.1% in the period. 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Americans have been complaining about the cost of living since the Colonial days. But actually measuring it, and determining how it changes over time, have always been a challenge. It was just a century ago, in 1921, that the U.S. government started publishing a national Consumer Price Index (CPI), based on living costs across major cities.

The CPI remains the most-quoted measure of living costs today, providing a record of how costs have changed from year to year and ample evidence for the complainers that few things are as cheap as they once were. It is also used as a proxy for inflation in adjusting union wages, Social Security payments, income tax brackets, and other financial calculations that play a major role in Americans' lives.

The Evolution of Cost-of-Living Measures

Soon after its creation by Congress in 1884, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) started to collect data on Americans' cost of living. In the late 1880s, it recorded how much money 8,544 families were spending each year, along with the current retail prices for 215 commodities.

As the years went by, BLS data collection became more sophisticated in its statistical methods and more ambitious in its scale. The results often were used in labor disputes between employers and unions to help determine wage increases. The notion, at least on the part of unions and their members, was that workers deserved a living wage for their toil.

The Early Days of the CPI

The CPI, as we know it, got its start during World War I, when the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board used BLS data to establish a fair wage scale for workers in U.S. shipyards. Their labor was considered so essential to the war effort that the government didn't want to risk any strikes or work stoppages for higher pay. Before long, the BLS had expanded its purview to other industries, collecting data on household spending for 12,000 families in cities across the U.S. and the prices of more than 140 goods and services.

The BLS began publishing that data in 1919 and, in 1921, introduced it in a format similar to today's CPI. In its early years, it was referred to as the Cost-of-Living Index. In 1945, it became the Consumers' Price Index for Moderate Income Families in Large Cities, soon shortened to the Consumer Price Index.

The CPI has continued to evolve as the country, and its political winds, changed over the decades. For example, the BLS took new-car and home appliance prices out of the equation during World War II, since neither was widely available and increased the weighting that it gave to car repair and mass-transit costs.

In the 1950s, it added the new wonders of frozen foods and television sets to its price lists. In the 1960s, it expanded its data collection to include single-person households. It also made numerous adjustments to its weightings and other technical details.

The New CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)

In 1978, the BLS introduced the CPI for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, and renamed the existing one the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. The new CPI-U intended to be more reflective of the living costs of the majority of Americans.

In 2002, the BLS unveiled the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or C-CPI-U. A primary difference between it and the other CPIs is that it accounts for changes in what consumers put in their shopping baskets as prices on individual commodities rise or fall. For example, if beef becomes expensive, then consumers might buy more fish or chicken, and vice versa.

The Experimental Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E)

Along the way, the BLS also began to develop still another CPI, the Experimental Consumer Price Index for the Elderly (CPI-E), and published data for it back to 1982. Meant to track the living costs of Americans ages 62 and older, it uses different weightings to account, for example, for that group's higher medical costs. However, the BLS still considers it experimental because of limitations to its data.

Criticisms of the Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Many of the changes to the CPI have resulted from criticisms of its methods and its accuracy as a measure of inflation. Those criticisms continue to this day.

As the BLS itself concedes, the CPI is often faulted for not reflecting the experience of some population groups. Also, the list of items that consumers spend their money on can lag behind what they're actually buying, especially as hot new products come on the market.

And, while the CPI may do a reasonably good job of capturing the experience of Americans overall, it can be way off the mark for any given individual. "Those consumers whose market baskets are different from the average basket will probably experience inflation that is different from the CPI measure," the BLS noted in 2012. "In recent years, someone with high expenditures on gasoline and medical care experienced much higher inflation than someone who spent heavily on furniture, apparel, and electronics."

Perhaps not surprisingly, some critics charge that the CPI tends to exaggerate inflation, while others maintain just the opposite.

How the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Affects You

Whatever its limitations, the CPI plays a central role in many Americans' lives. For example, collective bargaining agreements often include cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) derived from the CPI. Employers with nonunionized workers also may consult the CPI in setting their own wage increases.

Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients are eligible for an increase in their benefits each year, based on any rise in the CPI-W from the prior year. If the CPI-W doesn't increase, as was the case in 2016, then they receive no increase. The increase for 2023 is 8.7%.

The CPI can also affect how your income is taxed. For example, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) adjusts marginal income tax brackets each year in accordance with changes in the chained CPI.

However, not every government agency uses one of the CPIs to approximate inflation. The Federal Reserve Board, for example, uses the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, an alternative measure produced by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which it sees as more accurate for its purposes.

Those interested in learning more about the cost of living and other financial topics may want to consider enrolling in one of the best personal finance classes.

Consumer Prices and Household Incomes

While the CPI is a factor in determining the incomes of many Americans, it is far from the only one. Our research finds that both consumer prices and household incomes generally rise over time, but hardly in lockstep.

As the top graph below shows, the CPI tends to rise at a fairly smooth pace over time (although the inflation-wracked 1970s accelerated the curve, as the graph also makes clear). But as the second graph shows, household incomes follow a more jagged path, even declining for periods of time, such as during recessions.

What's more, even seemingly small annual increases in the cost of living can add up over the years, much the way that compound interest works. For example, the CPI-U rose at a relatively modest rate through the 2010s, with an annualized increase of 1.4% a year over the decade. All the same, the BLS' CPI Inflation Calculator shows that $100 in January 2010 was equivalent to the purchasing power of $118.59 at the end of 2019.

Are Americans Falling Behind?

Many Americans' personal experience suggests that wages have not kept up with the cost of living in recent decades. The data, however, are more nuanced. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, "today's real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago." But the report also noted, "what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers."

That wages have more or less kept up with inflation is not necessarily good news-especially in a country that has long prided itself on being a land of opportunity, where people who work hard can expect to see their standard of living improve over time. Economists refer to it as wage stagnation.

Wage growth has barely budged for Americans toward the bottom of the economic pyramid, a phenomenon now recognized as income inequality. Workers who earn the minimum wage have been particularly disadvantaged. Some states tie their minimum wage to the CPI, while others leave it to their legislators to decide when increases are merited. The federal government takes the latter approach, and raising the minimum wage is a contentious political issue.

Because the federal government has been slow to raise the minimum wage, some workers have seen a substantial decline in their inflation-adjusted incomes. In 2022, the most recently-available data, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 was worth 18% less than when it was last raised in 2009, after adjusting for the costs of living. In 1968, the average minimum wage worker earned $10.59 per hour in inflation-adjusted terms, which is 46% more than what workers earn today. "The minimum wage today would be over $22 per hour had it tracked productivity increases over the last five decades."

So while many Americans may complain about the cost of living, some have more to complain about than others.

What Is the Cost of Living Increase for 2023?

What States Have the Lowest Cost of Living?

What Is Income Inequality?

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Learn the relationship among the cost of living, the government's Consumer Price Index, inflation, and Americans' household incomes.

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Compared to other causes polled about, Americans are most likely to say that the following are major causes of homelessness in the United States:

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Compared to other causes polled about, Americans are most likely to say that the following are major causes of homelessness in the United States:

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A recent YouGov poll finds that Americans view homelessness as more of a national problem than a local one, though all levels of government - national, state, and local - rank highly on the list of entities Americans blame when it comes to homelessness. The mental health system is the only entity blamed by more Americans among those polled about, which is unsurprising given that the two most cited causes of homelessness (out of a list of 13 options offered) are addiction and mental illness. Solutions that receive the most support (out of 17 options provided) include increasing support for veterans, mental illness, disabilities, and addiction. Among the least supported options to attempt to solve homelessness are banning and criminalizing it.
Homelessness as a national, local, and personal problem
Americans are twice as likely to say homelessness is a very serious problem in the United States (54% say this) as they are to say it's a very serious problem in their local community (27% say this). People who live in cities are more likely to identify homelessness as a local problem than people who live in suburbs, towns, or rural areas are. People residing in the Western U.S. view homelessness as more of a local problem than people in the Northeast, Midwest, and South do.

While people are more likely to say homelessness is a national rather than a local problem, they are just as likely to endorse national and local government intervention. Most Americans believe the federal government (69%), as well as state and local governments (66%), should be doing more to address homelessness. Unlike concern over homelessness, there are no differences in support for government intervention based on the type of area that people reside in.

For many people, experiences with homelessness are not only local, they are also personal. More than half of Americans (53%) say they know someone who has been homeless (even if only for a short period of time), including themselves, a family member, a friend, or an acquaintance.

Almost one in five Americans (19%) say they have personally been homeless at some point in their lives. Among the groups analyzed that report above-average rates of ever being homeless are:

35% of people with an annual family income under $20,000 have ever been homeless

34% of people who report their employment status as "permanently disabled"

32% of people without a high-school degree

32% of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender

27% of people who have served or are serving in the military

The causes of homelessness
Compared to other causes polled about, Americans are most likely to say that the following are major causes of homelessness in the United States:

Americans are most likely to say the following are not causesof homelessness:

Democrats and Republicans disagree on some potential causes of homelessness. Unlike Democrats - who mostly view homelessness as stemming from society-wide issues, such as poverty and a lack of housing supply - Republicans also attribute homelessness to causes that may be classified as individual weaknesses, such as a lack of financial planning or personal responsibility.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to attribute homelessness to:

Poverty

A lack of affordable housing

A lack of housing supply

Disabilities

Poor health

Domestic violence

Racism

Gentrification

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to attribute homelessness to:

Drug and alcohol addiction

A lack of personal responsibility

Poor personal-finance skills

Who to blame for homelessness
Who or what do Americans blame for homelessness? Of 13 causes polled, Americans are most likely to say they blame the following a lot for homelessness:

The groups that Americans are most likely to say they don't blame at all include:

When it comes to assigning blame for homelessness, Democrats and Republicans are most likely to point the finger at members of the other party. In addition, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to place blame on homeless people themselves, while Democrats are more likely to blame billionaires, real estate developers, and landlords.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they blame the following for homelessness:

Republicans

Billionaires

Real estate developers

Landlords

The military

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they blame the following for homelessness:

Democrats

Homeless people themselves

Support for government intervention
Nearly three in four Americans view housing as a basic human right, and when asked which comes closer to their view, Americans are three times as likely to believe the government can do a lot about homelessness (63% believe this) than to believe homelessness is beyond the government's control (19%).

Since the 1990s, U.S. government policy on homelessness has shifted to a "housing first" model, which offers people who are homeless permanent housing as quickly as possible, and other supportive services thereafter. This model is in contrast to a prior philosophy of "housing readiness," which focuses on addressing other issues that may have led to homelessness prior to securing housing.

When asked which approach they prefer, about half of Americans take a "housing first" stance on homelessness, while fewer - about one-third - say that people who are homeless should solve other problems first before seeking housing. Though Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support a "housing first" approach, members of both parties are more likely to take this position than the alternative "housing readiness" view.

We also asked Americans their opinions on 17 specific policy proposals aimed at addressing homelessness. Of these, Americans are most likely to support the following:

Among the proposals asked about, Americans are more likely to support than to oppose all but one: arresting the homeless. The proposals with the highest levels of opposition include:

While Democrats and Republicans are equally likely to support some policy proposals - such as funding services for people with mental illness or victims of domestic violence - they disagree on many others. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support measures that make life difficult for homeless people, such as banning homeless camps and building defensive architecture. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to favor funding social services, offering housing support, and incentivizing the building of new housing.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support the government taking the following actions to address homelessness:

Spending more on social services

Strengthening laws around renters' rights to reduce evictions

Building housing for chronically homeless people to permanently live in

Funding more subsidized housing programs

Funding more emergency rental assistance programs

Incentivizing developers to build more housing

Incentivizing developers to build more low-income housing

Reducing zoning regulations to try to increase the supply of housing

Funding more programs for people with disabilities

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support the government taking the following actions to address homelessness:

While most Americans support a majority of the policies polled, far fewer are confident that these interventions will be effective at reducing homelessness. Perceptions of effectiveness and support align for at least one policy that most people say government should avoid: arresting and jailing people who are homeless. Fewer than 20% support this or believe it is effective.

Societal treatment of people who are homeless
How do Americans feel when they see people living on the streets in their community? When asked to select from a list of adjectives, a majority of people (62%) reported that seeing this would make them feel sad. About half say they'd feel concerned (49%) and sympathetic (47%). Fewer say they'd feel angry (19%), annoyed (11%), and guilty (10%).

How do Americans feel American society treats people who are homeless? Pairing the findings from our most recent poll with one we conducted earlier in the month, we find that more Americans say people who are homeless face discrimination (44% say a great deal; 37% say a fair amount) than say the same about other racial, religious, and sexual and gender minority groups, including transgender Americans (40% a great deal; 30% a fair amount), Black Americans (35% a great deal; 34% a fair amount), and Muslim Americans (32% a great deal; 38% a fair amount).

A gender gap in views on homelessness
On most questions asked, women were more likely than men to take a sympathetic stance towards people experiencing homelessness. This is consistent with prior research showing that women are more concerned about homelessness and have more compassionate views on the subject. Below, we outline a number of opinions on which women and men differ in our survey:

Women (63%) are more likely than men (45%) to say homelessness is a very serious problem in the U.S.

Women (48%) are more likely than men (34%) to say the federal government should be doing much more to address homelessness.

Women (65%) are more likely than men (48%) to say that a lack of affordable housing is a major cause of homelessness.

Women (44%) are more likely than men (21%) to say that domestic violence is a major cause of homelessness.

Women (19%) are less likely than men (29%) to blame homeless people themselves for homelessness.

Women (79%) are more likely than men (65%) to say that housing is a basic human right.

Women (72%) are more likely than men (56%) to support funding emergency rental assistance programs.

Women (13%) are less likely than men (22%) to support arresting and jailing homeless people.

Women (69%) are more likely than men (54%) to say that seeing someone living on the streets makes them feel sad.

Women (54%) are more likely than men (33%) to say that people who are homeless face a great deal of discrimination in society.

This poll was conducted on April 19 - 25, 2022, among 1,000 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this poll. Image: Jonathan Kho Ming Jun on Unsplash

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Who do Americans blame for homelessness? | YouGov

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A recent YouGov poll finds that Americans view homelessness as more of a national problem than a local one, though all levels of government - national, state, and local - rank highly on the list of entities Americans blame when it comes to homelessness.

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It can be subtle, it can be difficult to spot, but anti-homeless architecture is all around us, excluding some of society’s most marginalised groups from our public spaces.

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It can be subtle, it can be difficult to spot, but anti-homeless architecture is all around us, excluding some of society’s most marginalised groups from our public spaces.

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These benches, snapped outside the Royal Courts of Justice on London's Strand in 2014, are angled and have dividers to make them uncomfortable to lie on. Image: Alan Stanton / Flickr

Rowland Atkinson, the chair of inclusive societies at the University of Sheffield, has researched the impact of hostile architecture on vulnerable populations.

He told the Big Issue many hostile designs may not appear to be exclusionary at first glance but can have darker purposes.

Atkinson said: "There has been this co-opting of street furniture design and other techniques to find ways to apparently manage social problems and issues in the street in a way that appears to be benign but have potentially more aggressive impacts on more vulnerable populations."
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Not all hostile designs are created intentionally and in some cases they can serve a positive function, Atkinson conceded.

He gave the examples of adding studs to street furniture or low-level walls to stop skateboarders grinding or to offer people a space to sit or eat where they can maintain personal space.

"The idea of design then becomes translated into production standards and templates which just simply get repeated," Atkinson added. "It's not like those manufacturers are thinking 'we do it this way to exclude homeless people'. I think they would be kind of horrified by that.

"The emergent outcome of trying to make places safer has been to create more anti-social spaces."

How does hostile architecture affect homeless people?

As one of the most marginalised groups in society, people who experience street homelessness are often directly targeted by some of the most egregious examples of hostile designs.

Spikes on the floor in spaces outside shops and bars on benches to prevent people lying down are some of the most obvious instances in which people with nowhere else to go are excluded from public spaces.

Twitter account @hostiledesign chronicles anti-homeless architecture from all over the world and has attracted 100,000 followers since launching in July. The person behind the account, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Big Issue the existence of the designs speaks to how we view the less fortunate in society.

"The hostility toward the homeless impacts not only them but the disabled, elderly, wheelchair users, visually impaired, etc," they said. "We have such disdain for them existing in our spaces that we're willing to make it worse for everyone instead of coming up with solutions."

What are examples of anti-homeless architecture?

An example of an "anti-homeless bench" in London. Image: Matt Brown (CC BY 2.0)

1. Benches

Hostile designs among benches are so ubiquitous that they are pretty much ever-present now. Whether it be curved benches or seating divided by armrests, there are no shortage of crafty ways to prevent people from lying on benches to rest or sleep.

The Camden bench, commissioned by the London local authority in 2012, is one of the most enduring examples of a hostile design, featuring angled surfaces that dissuade any use of the street furniture other than for sitting.

Atkinson said: "The subdivided partitioned bench is the standard design more or less now, that is essentially what you will see wheeled out."

2. Rocky pavements

If you see an uneven pavement with rocks jutting out of the ground, chances are it could be to stop people sitting or loitering.

This is most common in alcoves and small spaces outside shops or other buildings to prevent people from using the space.

Whether on the ground or on surfaces, spikes are an aggressive way of deterring people from sitting. Image: Kent Williams / Flickr

3. Street spikes

It's a similar story for spikes on the street. Perhaps the most outwardly aggressive form of anti-homeless architecture, these are also often found outside shops to ward off rough sleepers.

The spikes are also possibly the form of hostile design most likely to spark complaints.

"The vulnerability of people is increased when they cannot find somewhere safe in, say, a back alley that is fully sealed up, or cannot find a temporary resting space because there are spikes or other strategies to keep you out of those places," said Atkinson.

"It's possible for us apparently as a community to send out the signals to the most excluded groups amongst us that they're not welcome or going to be accommodated even when they're in the most desperate situations."

And spikes on windowsills and walls might not just be to keep the birds away - they may also be a tactic to stop people sitting or to prevent skateboarders from grinding on them.

If you see spikes on a surface at waist level, chances are it's a hostile design.

These planters installed in Toronto sparked a backlash after forcing out a man who slept under the shelter. Signs pinned to pillars state: "Between these pillars... Somebody lived here". Image: Enoch Leung (CC BY-SA 2.0)

4. Street dividers

Large planters on pavements might not just be there to make the place greener.

They are also used to fill space where people can sit or as roadblocks to keep out skateboarders, cyclists and others.

5. Boulders and other objects blocking spaces

The placement of these boulders in Los Angeles' Koreatown led to accusations they were installed to prevent people experiencing homelessness from setting up camp. Image: Joe Linton / Streetsblog

If planters can mask their hostility behind turning the place green, boulders and other rocks can achieve the same objective in a much more grey fashion, whether it be on pavements, under bridges or in other sleeping spots.

How do you fight anti-homeless architecture?

Some opponents of anti-homeless architecture have resorted to direct action, including covering up floor spikes with concrete or mattresses, but be aware that some actions may result in a criminal charge or being sued by the property owner.

Anything that damages property can be classed as criminal damage and that includes fly posting, like putting up stickers or posters. Fly tipping, defined as illegally dumping waste, is also a criminal offence and could be applied to mattresses or cushions left out.

That hasn't stopped some people though.

Musician Professor Green filmed designer Max McMurdo dismantling bars on a bench in Bournemouth in 2018 after the local council sparked uproar when it installed them.

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Others have drawn attention to the offending design to shame those responsible. Artist Stuart Semple, who was behind the campaign to remove the Bournemouth bench bars, sells free stickers on his hostiledesign.org website to allow people to highlight hostile architecture.

That's money they could used to help people.

Instead they tried to hide problems the city's problems from just their block.

It didn't even work though.

The rocks placement is barbaric and make walking more difficult for everyone. pic.twitter.com/wN0xN6gPx3
- Danielle Baskin (@djbaskin) September 27, 2019

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Raising awareness and campaigning is always an alternative that avoids potential legal action, so you can shout about hostile architecture in the local press or on social media, potentially even sending your find to @hostiledesign to be included in their collection.

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5 ways anti-homeless architecture is used to exclude people from public spaces - The Big Issue

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Anti-homeless architecture is used to make public spaces hostile for people who are homeless and sleeping rough

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What is a home? Is a building, a location, people? A home can be a symbol of homelessness, as it's obviously something that's lacking if you're homeless. 

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Money is symbolic in our world for success and wealth. 

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8-10 objects that will change your perspective on homelessness

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8-10 objects that will change your perspective on homelessness

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7. Most homeless people have very few clothes and struggle to stay warm during cold weather

8. Not having anyone to support you when your homeless can lead you down an even worse path