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The current edition of this report analyzes available data on homelessness for 2022 and over time. Key facts and data points include:

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.

In 2022, counts of individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in the history of data collection.

Unsheltered rates are also trending upward, impacting most racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups.

Homeless services systems continued to expand the availability of both temporary and permanent beds in 2022, but these resources still fall short of reaching everyone in need.

Homelessness rose by a modest 0.3 percent from 2020 to 2022, a period marked by both pandemic-related economic disruptions and robust investments of federal resources into human services.

The State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide an overview of the scope of homelessness in the U.S. on a given night in 2022, and illustrate emerging trends. Data in this report is pulled from HUD's 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count data, as well as Housing Inventory Count data. Each section features interactive charts to display this data, with highlights discussed in the text of this report.

Homelessness in 2022

According to the January 2022 PIT Count, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness across America. This amounts to roughly 18 out of every 10,000 people. The vast majority (72 percent) were individual adults, but a notable share (28 percent) were people living in families with children.

However, there is more to the story of homelessness in 2022. This section will delve deeper into questions of 1) who is experiencing homelessness, 2) where they are experiencing it, and 3) the degree to which people are living unsheltered.

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: Special Populations

For reasons rooted in practice and policy, the homeless services world focuses on specific special populations. Of people experiencing homeless:

22 percent are chronically homeless individuals (or people with disabilities who have experienced long-term or repeated incidents of homelessness)

6 percent are veterans (distinguished due to their service to the country), and

5 percent are unaccompanied youth under 25 (considered vulnerable due to their age)

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Race/Ethnicity

Available data demonstrates that race and ethnicity are key determinants that impact 1) who will become homeless and 2) the type and depth of rehousing barriers people will experience.

Within the 2022 PIT Count data, White people are numerically the largest racial group. They represent half (50 percent) of all people experiencing homelessness. However, issues of representation are more complicated than that data point would suggest.

Most groups of color have higher rates of homelessness than their White counterparts-and, in some cases, far higher. Within the White group, 11 out of every 10,000 people experience homelessness. For Black people, that number is more than four times as large-48 out of every 10,000 people. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders particularly stand out as having the highest rates, with 121 out of every 10,000 people experiencing homelessness.

The racial and ethnic groups with the highest incidences of homelessness have extensive histories of experiencing oppression, including displacements from land and property and exclusions from housing opportunities. Effectively addressing homelessness will likely require invested partners to account for America's history, and that history's influence on current culture, policy, and practice.

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Gender

Gender also matters. Within the overall homeless population (which includes both adults and children), men, who are 68 percent of the individuals population, far outnumber women and are far more likely to experience homelessness. Serious systemic failures are occurring in relation to some of America's men, implicating holes in the social safety net, challenges within feeder systems, and barriers to rehousing.

Meanwhile, women (both those living as individuals and in families with children) and people who identify as transgender, nonbinary ("not singularly female or male," per HUD), and questioning are also notably represented within homelessness (see visualization below). They have unique barriers and needs that must also be addressed.

Who is Unsheltered in 2022

Throughout America, numerous dedicated workers use limited available resources to serve people experiencing homelessness. On a given night, the homeless services system provides shelter for 348,630 people. Despite these significant efforts, 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, which means their primary nighttime residence is a place not suitable for human habitation (for example, a city sidewalk, vehicle, abandoned building, or park). Significantly, living unsheltered can impact a person's health and safety.

Individuals are particularly likely to be unsheltered. The majority of the group (51 percent) are sleeping in these settings. For the subset of individuals who are chronically homeless, the status quo is particularly dire-62 percent are unsheltered. Families with children, who are often prioritized for services, are least likely to live unsheltered-11 percent live in such situations.

Race- and gender-based inequalities are readily evident in unsheltered homelessness (see visualization below). When subgroups are not accessing or utilizing shelter, it suggests they may not be equally benefitting from government investments in solutions to homelessness.

Members of the LGBTQ community accounted for in current data collection (i.e., people who identified on HUD surveys within the categories of transgender, gender questioning, or nonbinary), have particularly high rates of unsheltered homelessness. Many other populations also stand out, having levels of unsheltered homelessness that surpass those of the overall population. This includes every racial, ethnic, and gender group except women and Black people, whose levels of unsheltered homelessness are less than the overall population. The reasons for these disparities are worthy of further research and analysis.

Locating Population Hot Spots in 2022

State and community stories of homelessness vary. Some are managing populations that are simply large; others have numbers that are larger than what would be expected given the size of their jurisdiction. Identifying locations with a disproportionately large homeless population is useful for at least two reasons: 1) it helps target resources to the places most in need of assistance, and 2) examining population variations across jurisdictions helps refine the field's understanding of homelessness causes and solutions. For example, jurisdictions with smaller-than-expected homeless populations may be implementing solutions worthy of replication in other parts of the country.

By Population Size. Among the states, homeless population sizes range from approximately 600 people to more than 170,000. Similar variations exist at the local level. For example, during the 2022 PIT Count, Salem County, New Jersey reported only 20 people experiencing homelessness, compared to more than 65,000 people identified in Los Angeles. Resource needs and system challenges can vary significantly according to these different homeless population sizes.

Homelessness is largely concentrated in certain areas of the country. Solving challenges in a few jurisdictions (those with the largest unhoused populations) would significantly advance the goal of ending homelessness. Just five states (California, New York, Florida, Washington, and Texas) account for 55 percent of people experiencing homelessness. And a mere 25 Continuums of Care (CoCs) account for 47 percent of all homelessness.

Many of these states and communities simply have a lot of residents and are generally populous. Thus, it is unsurprising that their subpopulations (including people experiencing homelessness) are also relatively large. To understand whether challenges exist beyond this dynamic, it is necessary to examine per capita experiences of homelessness.

By Per Capita Experiences of Homelessness. Population size is important. But another critical question is: how common is it to experience homelessness within a jurisdiction? Per capita data answers this question by highlighting the share of the general population falling into the group.

Per capita experiences of homelessness vary greatly. For example, at the state level, Mississippi represents a low rate of homelessness, with only 4 people out of every 10,000 experiencing homelessness. Californians have the highest likelihood of being unhoused, however-44 out of every 10,000 residents. Similar variation exists at the local level, with Humboldt County, California reporting the highest per capita experiences of homelessness (121 out of every 10,000 people) and the CoC serving Dearborn, Michigan having the lowest (2 out of every 10,000 people).

Several major cities with high housing costs top the list of CoCs with the highest likelihood of homelessness, including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, and Seattle. Implementing solutions to the housing affordability crisis in those areas would tremendously advance the goal of ending homelessness.

While housing costs and population size play into per capita experiences of homelessness, there are likely other factors contributing to high per capita rates. Researchers, data experts, and others should continue efforts to identify and unpack them.

Homelessness Trends Over Time

Homelessness in 21 st century America has largely been defined by steady but modest progress since data collection began in 2007. Between 2007 and 2016, the population of people experiencing homelessness shrank most years. However, the overall reduction was only 17 percent during that nearly decade-long period.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new trend emerged: consistent annual increases in homelessness. And the unprecedented health crisis had the potential to further complicate matters. For people who were already unhoused, how would their health and economic security improvement efforts be impacted? And as businesses closed and unemployment rates rose, would new people seek help from shelters?

Tracking COVID-related population changes proved difficult. The pandemic disrupted data collection in 2021. By 2022, the full PIT Count resumed, and data showed that the homeless population had once again increased-but by only 0.3 percent. Given the unprecedented circumstances facing the nation, the shift could be characterized as being unexpectedly small. Federal policy likely impacted outcomes: COVID-19-related government interventions benefitted many people. Eviction moratoria and the federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program kept (and are still keeping) many people housed. Additional investments were made in homeless assistance and housing vouchers targeted to people impacted by homelessness.

Homelessness Trends: Household Types and Special Populations

Progress in ending homelessness has been uneven across subgroups since data collection began in 2007. And although the overall homeless population increased slightly between 2020 and 2022, the same was not true for all subgroups. Some actually got smaller over that time period-1) families with children, 2) youth, and 3) veterans (see visualization below).

Due to factors such as vulnerability and history of military service, these groups are often targeted by both government and non-governmental interventions. Notably, the nation's progress on veteran homelessness has been particularly robust. The size of the group was cut in half over a decade-long period (2010-2020), decreasing by 50 percent. A total of 83 communities and 3 states have functionally ended veteran homelessness. Veterans have been the focus of concerted strategies and efforts (including governmental investments) that have been successful. Similar attention and resources could be extended to other subgroups in an effort to attain similar success.

The trends related to individuals experiencing homelessness are alarming. The 2022 Point-in-Time Count reflected record highs in the history data collection. The overall subpopulation of individuals reached 421,392 people, surpassing the previous record that existed in 2007. The count of chronically homeless individuals also surpassed all previous years. These trends reflect a notable shift after a period of population declines.

Homelessness Trends: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

In 2015, HUD began publishing homelessness data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and certain gender categories. Although this isn't a long history of data reporting, it overlaps with the recent period of rising homelessness.

Uneven progress is evident between 2015 and 2022 among various identity groups. The above chart ( Subgroup Trends, 2007-2022) illustrates that some subgroups have increased in size, while others have simply stagnated or gotten smaller. For example, the trend lines for White people and Hispanics/Latinos have been moving upward.

Digging a little deeper, the below chart ( Subgroup Population Shifts Since 2015) highlights the extent of the changes occurring within each subgroup. It is clear that increases in homelessness have been particularly pronounced among people who are transgender (178 percent increase), Asian (36 percent increase), American Indian (30 percent increase), and Latino (25 percent increase).

Homelessness Trends: Shelter Utilization

Shelters are key components of America's response to homelessness. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain trends have emerged in relation to this form of temporary housing:

Unsheltered Homelessness is On the Rise. The number of people living unsheltered decreased most years between 2007 and 2015. However, mirroring the pattern for individuals experiencing homelessness, that trend has recently made an about-face turn. The unsheltered population has grown yearly since 2015, amounting to a 35 percent increase over a seven-year span.

The impacts are not equal across groups. Since 2015, some populations have experienced growths in unsheltered homelessness that far surpass 35 percent. Of specific concern are people who are transgender (231 percent increase), Asian (83 percent increase), Latino (77 percent increase), and American Indian (61 percent increase). Challenges appear to be tied to western states (California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii) that are both diverse and highly immersed in affordable housing crises. Significant majorities of these homeless subgroup members live in these states.

Systems Add More Shelter Beds in Response. As illustrated in the visualization below, the nation's shelter bed numbers have increased by 7 percent since 2019, indicating a slight increase in system capacity. Potential explanations include systems responding to increases in unsheltered homelessness, and/or the availability of pandemic relief dollars to create additional shelter beds.

Prior to this momentum, shelter bed numbers had been slowly trending downward as the number of permanent housing beds was greatly expanding. Such movements reflect fidelity to Housing First, a strategy that emphasizes stabilizing people in permanent housing as quickly possible.

Despite More Beds, Fewer People Are In Shelter. Even with the addition of more shelter beds, fewer people are staying in these facilities. The shelter population has been trending downward for several years, including 2021 (a year uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a reduced congregate shelter capacity and consequent reduced inflow into shelter).

Homeless Assistance in America: Use of Resources and Capacity

Homeless services systems often don't have the resources to house everyone in need. Thus, they make a host of difficult decisions related to 1) who to help and 2) how to budget available funds among temporary shelter and permanent housing options. This section provides a window into how homeless service systems are currently making limited government investments work for a growing population of people experiencing homelessness.

Shelter Beds

As noted in the section above, the number of people living unsheltered has been on the rise since 2015. Systems may be responding to this trend by expanding shelter capacity: after a few years of decreasing the availability of shelter beds, they expanded the total number by 7 percent over the last four years.

Importantly, a major contributor to unsheltered homelessness has been consistent and overwhelming shelter bed shortages since data collection began in 2007. At the high-water mark, there were 225,000 more people experiencing homelessness in America than existing shelter beds. Today, the gap has narrowed but remains vast, largely impacting individual adults.

In 2022, an examination of national-level data reveals a shortage of a little less than 188,00 year-round shelter beds for individual adults. There are only enough to reach 55 percent of the population. National-level data points to a surplus of available accommodations for families with children and unaccompanied youth.

However, individual community circumstances vary. Thus, a specific town could have a shortage of available shelter units for families or a surplus of beds for individual adults.

Further, many communities set up temporary shelters during the winter months to prevent weather-related deaths. Thus, more people have spaces available to them than what is reflected by the year-round bed numbers.

Permanent Housing Beds

Homeless services system investments suggest a prioritization of permanent housing options over temporary shelter. This is in line with Housing First, an approach to ending homelessness that emphasizes stabilizing people in permanent housing as quickly as possible while also making services available.

Permanent housing makes up 60 percent of all beds connected to homeless services systems. The number of such slots has consistently trended upwards since data collection began, with a 26 percent growth over just the last five years. Despite these investments, homelessness (including unsheltered homelessness) is still on the rise. Available resources are simply not enough to ensure permanent housing for everyone who needs it.

Common Forms of Assistance

The top two forms of housing assistance are permanent supportive housing (37 percent of system beds) and emergency shelter (32 percent of system beds). The third most popular form of assistance (Rapid Re-Housing) is also the fastest growing: the number of beds in this category has grown by 60 percent over the last five years. Transitional housing is the only category on the decline. This model requires people to meet certain benchmarks before being awarded with permanent housing, and has fallen out of favor given growing adherence to the Housing First strategy, which is backed by research evidence.

Indicators of Risk

In the lead up to the pandemic, the nationwide poverty rate had decreased for five consecutive years. In 2020, that streak ended and the number of people living in poverty increased by approximately 3.3 million people. This trend continued into 2021 when nearly 41.4 million people, or 12.8 percent of the U.S. population, were counted in this group. Certain racial groups have even higher rates of poverty, including Black people (21.8 percent), American Indian and Alaska Native people (21.4 percent), and Hispanics/Latinos (17.5 percent). People living in poverty struggle to afford necessities such as housing, food, and medical care.

In 2021, an estimated 7.1 million American households experienced severe housing cost burden, which means that they spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing. The overall size of this group had been gradually decreasing since 2014, but rose again in 2021. The number of severely cost-burdened American households is now 25 percent higher than it was in 2007, the year the nation began monitoring homelessness data. And more troublesome patterns may exist for notable subpopulations, including people with the lowest incomes and female-headed households.

"Doubling up" (or sharing the housing of others for economic reasons) is another measure of housing hardship and risk of homelessness. Approximately 3.7 million people across the country were in these situations in 2021. Some doubled up individuals and families have fragile relationships with their hosts or face other challenges in the home, putting them at risk of literal homelessness. Similar to severely housing cost burdened households, the number of people living doubled up had been decreasing but ticked upwards again in 2021. Currently, the doubled up population is 25 percent smaller than it was in 2015, the year in which utilized data became available.

National data on households who are housing cost burdened and doubled up do not tell the whole story, as certain regions across the country face more dire challenges than can be seen for the U.S. as a whole. Severe housing cost burdened households grew at higher rates than the national average in several states and the District of Columbia. For example, since 2007, severe housing cost burdened households grew by 155 percent in Wyoming, 87 percent in Nevada, 72 percent in Maryland, and 65 percent in Hawaii. Similarly, from 2015 to 2021, the number of people doubled up increased by 59 percent in South Dakota and 36 percent in Maine.

For over a decade, the nation has not made any real progress in reducing the number of Americans at risk of literal homelessness. Despite decreasing trends in people living doubled up overall, the rise in severe housing cost numbers are concerning. Even more troubling are the risks that inflation rising to a 40-year high in 2022, expiring eviction moratoria, and fading Emergency Rental Assistance dollars pose to those at risk of experiencing homelessness.

Sources and Methodology

Data on homelessness are based on annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts conducted by Continuums of Care (CoCs) to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night. The latest full counts (sheltered and unsheltered) are from January 2022. Point-in-Time data from 2007 to 2022 are available on HUD Exchange.

Rates of homelessness compare Point-in-Time Counts to state, county, and city population data from the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (Population and Housing Unit Estimates data tables, 2021 version). Rates for racial, ethnic, and gender demographic groups are drawn from the same source.

Data on homeless assistance, or bed capacity of homeless services programs on a given night, are reported annually by CoCs along with Point-in-Time Counts. These data are compiled in the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), which is also available on HUD Exchange for 2007 through 2022.

Estimates of at-risk populations are from analyses by the National Alliance to End Homelessness using the Census Bureau's 2021 American Community Survey 1-year microdata. Poor renter households with a severe housing cost burden are households whose total income falls under the applicable poverty threshold and who are paying 50 percent or more of total household income to housing rent. For people living doubled up, the Alliance has adopted the methodology developed by Molly K. Richard, Julie Dworkin, Katherine Grace Rule, Suniya Farooqui, Zachary Glendening, and Sam Carlson (Molly K. Richard, Julie Dworkin, Katherine Grace Rule, Suniya Farooqui, Zachary Glendening & Sam Carlson (2022): Quantifying Doubled-Up Homelessness: Presenting a New Measure Using U.S. Census Microdata, Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2021.1981976, Accessed from: https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Quantifying-Doubled-Up-Homelessness.pdf). Poverty is based on the composition and income of the entire household as compared to the poverty thresholds. A person is considered to be living doubled up based on their relationship to the household head and include: relatives for whom the household head does not take responsibility (based on their age and relationship) and nonrelatives who are not partners and not formally sharing responsibility for household costs (not roomers or roommates). Single adult children and relatives over 65 may be considered to be the householder's responsibility so they are included as doubling up only if the household is overcrowded. For more information, please consult the authors' study and methodology.

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The 2023 State of Homelessness provides a comprehensive analysis of homelessness in the U.S. in 2022 and reveals rising trends, disparities based on race, ethnicity, and gender, and the challenges faced in providing shelter and assistance to those in need.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a unique set of public health challenges. But the pandemic has exacerbated national crises that existed long before the coronavirus. Nowhere is this more evident than in the pandemic's influence on homelessness and affordable housing.

COVID-19 has posed, and continues to pose, unique risks for people experiencing homelessness. Social services have become more limited throughout 2020. But the economic consequences of the pandemic have put more Americans at risk of entering homelessness.

These challenges are faced by individuals across the country, including many in the nation's capital. At United Way of the National Capital Area , we work closely with regional social services providers through our support of 2-1-1 social service hotlines . These non-emergency hotlines are able to connect thousands of people to food, financial assistance and health care resources.

The realities of facing homelessness and the pandemic are different for every person and family. Still, the national statistics around these dual crises provide important insight into this issue. We were interested in what the data would reveal. In light of this, we decided to conduct an analysis of the data available on homelessness around the country during COVID-19. We paid special attention to the following factors:

-Eviction filings

-Local rent forgiveness policies

-Health care access for people experiencing homelessness

The results below reflect COVID-19's impact on people experiencing homelessness during these extraordinarily difficult times.

The Cities Experiencing the Most Evictions Due to COVID-19

In the initial stages of our analysis, we looked at the states with the most eviction filings during COVID-19. Notably, there was not one specific region in the country that was a center for COVID-19-related evictions. The top cities where this occurs included Phoenix, Houston, and Memphis, spanning across the country and across different regional industrial centers.

Looking into what caused these evictions, many would expect the largest indicator of eviction to be job loss. Therefore, we looked at the states with the highest unemployment rates during COVID-19.

The States with the Highest Unemployment Rate Due to COVID-19

Again, there was no clear region in the country where COVID-19 led to the greatest leap in unemployment. However, it is clear from the data that statewide unemployment has been closely tied to local industries and their pandemic-related losses.

The States with the Highest Homelessness Rate Pre-COVID-19

Having looked at these causative factors, we moved on to the data surrounding the prevalence of homelessness itself. We wanted to look at pre-COVID-19 data to get an indication as to where homelessness was especially common before the pandemic, as the coronavirus is likely to be especially challenging for states with pre-existing affordable housing crises.

The 10 Cities with the Most Homeless Shelters

Many states are unable to provide extensive support to these massive groups, which leads to greater rates of chronic homelessness across the state, a crisis that even preceded COVID-19.

With all of these statistics offering insights on which states may be especially vulnerable to experience homelessness as a result of COVID-19, we also wanted to look at the health effects of severe housing costs.

The 10 States with the Most Severe Housing Cost Burden Pre-COVID-19

The states with the highest severe housing cost burden, or the percentage of households that spend 50% or more of their household income on housing payments, included California, New York, and Hawaii. For individuals in these situations, increased pressure on health and hunger services may have put even more pressure on their already-strapped budgets, perhaps even forcing some people into homelessness during this pandemic.

Finally, we wanted to look at how the pandemic has impacted the health of people experiencing homelessness. For everyone, expensive health care associated with the pandemic has been a major concern. Everything from rapid test costs to emergency room bills has been on the minds of individuals worried about their budgets and their health.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Health Care for the Homeless

We looked at the status of health centers dedicated to helping people experiencing homelessness and other at-risk populations. These health centers receive funding known as 330(h) funding. Throughout the pandemic, each month health centers with 330(h) funding have closed due to increased costs and social distancing requirements. However, the average number of health centers closed each month has fallen by about 400 health centers. This availability of health care may have helped reduce the spread of COVID-19 in homeless populations, which has fallen to a prevalence of 9% on average.

Still, that prevalence is especially high. According to the data from COVID-19 tests in 330(h) health centers, rates of COVID-19 among populations of people experiencing homelessness and other underserved populations are high. According to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center , the highest single 7-day rate of positive COVID tests for the entire United States population between the months of June and October was 7.8% (with the rate falling as low as 4.0% in that time). The National Health Care for the Homeless Council reported that COVID positivity rates for those experiencing homelessness feel in an average range of 9-12% for that same time period. Augmenting the general dangers presented by increased positivity rates among a given population, the CDC reports that since many people experiencing homelessness are often older adults or have underlying medical conditions, they may face even more severe illness due to COVID-19.

The sum total of the data we collected and analyzed for this piece paints a dispiriting picture for those experiencing homelessness as well as the services and people dedicated to helping them. The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to exacerbate existing issues for those who are homeless, while also adding scores to their ranks. Job and income loss throughout the country have seen people from coast to coast get evicted from their homes, creating a major increase in the number of people seeking out resources and support systems designed to help the homeless. This is happening at the same time that the virus and restrictions designed to curb its spread have forced homeless shelters across the nation to shutter their doors, in some cases permanently. Not even cities with strong support systems in place have been immune to these realities.

Beyond all of those concerns, there is still the reality of the virus itself, and the impacts it has had and will continue to have on the health of individuals experiencing homelessness in this country. Given the advanced ages and underlying health issues many people experiencing homelessness have to deal with in the best of times, the increased infection rates and lack of healthcare resources represents a significant threat to America's homeless population.

Sources

Cities with the Most Eviction Filings During COVID-19

States with the Highest Unemployment Rate During COVID-19

States with the Highest Pre-COVID Homeless Rate

States with the Most Severe Pre-COVID Housing Cost Burden

Positive COVID Test Rate for Homeless Population

States with the Most Homeless Shelters

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The Effect of COVID-19 on Homelessness in the US | United Way

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The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a unique set of public health challenges. But the pandemic has exacerbated national crises that existed long before the coronavirus. Nowhere is this more evident than in the pandemic's influence on homelessness and affordable housing. COVID-19 has posed, and continues to pose, unique risks for people experiencing homelessness.

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The current edition of this report analyzes available data on homelessness for 2022 and over time. Key facts and data points include:

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.

In 2022, counts of individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in the history of data collection.

Unsheltered rates are also trending upward, impacting most racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups.

Homeless services systems continued to expand the availability of both temporary and permanent beds in 2022, but these resources still fall short of reaching everyone in need.

Homelessness rose by a modest 0.3 percent from 2020 to 2022, a period marked by both pandemic-related economic disruptions and robust investments of federal resources into human services.

The State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide an overview of the scope of homelessness in the U.S. on a given night in 2022, and illustrate emerging trends. Data in this report is pulled from HUD's 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count data, as well as Housing Inventory Count data. Each section features interactive charts to display this data, with highlights discussed in the text of this report.

Homelessness in 2022

According to the January 2022 PIT Count, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness across America. This amounts to roughly 18 out of every 10,000 people. The vast majority (72 percent) were individual adults, but a notable share (28 percent) were people living in families with children.

However, there is more to the story of homelessness in 2022. This section will delve deeper into questions of 1) who is experiencing homelessness, 2) where they are experiencing it, and 3) the degree to which people are living unsheltered.

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: Special Populations

For reasons rooted in practice and policy, the homeless services world focuses on specific special populations. Of people experiencing homeless:

22 percent are chronically homeless individuals (or people with disabilities who have experienced long-term or repeated incidents of homelessness)

6 percent are veterans (distinguished due to their service to the country), and

5 percent are unaccompanied youth under 25 (considered vulnerable due to their age)

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Race/Ethnicity

Available data demonstrates that race and ethnicity are key determinants that impact 1) who will become homeless and 2) the type and depth of rehousing barriers people will experience.

Within the 2022 PIT Count data, White people are numerically the largest racial group. They represent half (50 percent) of all people experiencing homelessness. However, issues of representation are more complicated than that data point would suggest.

Most groups of color have higher rates of homelessness than their White counterparts-and, in some cases, far higher. Within the White group, 11 out of every 10,000 people experience homelessness. For Black people, that number is more than four times as large-48 out of every 10,000 people. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders particularly stand out as having the highest rates, with 121 out of every 10,000 people experiencing homelessness.

The racial and ethnic groups with the highest incidences of homelessness have extensive histories of experiencing oppression, including displacements from land and property and exclusions from housing opportunities. Effectively addressing homelessness will likely require invested partners to account for America's history, and that history's influence on current culture, policy, and practice.

Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Gender

Gender also matters. Within the overall homeless population (which includes both adults and children), men, who are 68 percent of the individuals population, far outnumber women and are far more likely to experience homelessness. Serious systemic failures are occurring in relation to some of America's men, implicating holes in the social safety net, challenges within feeder systems, and barriers to rehousing.

Meanwhile, women (both those living as individuals and in families with children) and people who identify as transgender, nonbinary ("not singularly female or male," per HUD), and questioning are also notably represented within homelessness (see visualization below). They have unique barriers and needs that must also be addressed.

Who is Unsheltered in 2022

Throughout America, numerous dedicated workers use limited available resources to serve people experiencing homelessness. On a given night, the homeless services system provides shelter for 348,630 people. Despite these significant efforts, 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, which means their primary nighttime residence is a place not suitable for human habitation (for example, a city sidewalk, vehicle, abandoned building, or park). Significantly, living unsheltered can impact a person's health and safety.

Individuals are particularly likely to be unsheltered. The majority of the group (51 percent) are sleeping in these settings. For the subset of individuals who are chronically homeless, the status quo is particularly dire-62 percent are unsheltered. Families with children, who are often prioritized for services, are least likely to live unsheltered-11 percent live in such situations.

Race- and gender-based inequalities are readily evident in unsheltered homelessness (see visualization below). When subgroups are not accessing or utilizing shelter, it suggests they may not be equally benefitting from government investments in solutions to homelessness.

Members of the LGBTQ community accounted for in current data collection (i.e., people who identified on HUD surveys within the categories of transgender, gender questioning, or nonbinary), have particularly high rates of unsheltered homelessness. Many other populations also stand out, having levels of unsheltered homelessness that surpass those of the overall population. This includes every racial, ethnic, and gender group except women and Black people, whose levels of unsheltered homelessness are less than the overall population. The reasons for these disparities are worthy of further research and analysis.

Locating Population Hot Spots in 2022

State and community stories of homelessness vary. Some are managing populations that are simply large; others have numbers that are larger than what would be expected given the size of their jurisdiction. Identifying locations with a disproportionately large homeless population is useful for at least two reasons: 1) it helps target resources to the places most in need of assistance, and 2) examining population variations across jurisdictions helps refine the field's understanding of homelessness causes and solutions. For example, jurisdictions with smaller-than-expected homeless populations may be implementing solutions worthy of replication in other parts of the country.

By Population Size. Among the states, homeless population sizes range from approximately 600 people to more than 170,000. Similar variations exist at the local level. For example, during the 2022 PIT Count, Salem County, New Jersey reported only 20 people experiencing homelessness, compared to more than 65,000 people identified in Los Angeles. Resource needs and system challenges can vary significantly according to these different homeless population sizes.

Homelessness is largely concentrated in certain areas of the country. Solving challenges in a few jurisdictions (those with the largest unhoused populations) would significantly advance the goal of ending homelessness. Just five states (California, New York, Florida, Washington, and Texas) account for 55 percent of people experiencing homelessness. And a mere 25 Continuums of Care (CoCs) account for 47 percent of all homelessness.

Many of these states and communities simply have a lot of residents and are generally populous. Thus, it is unsurprising that their subpopulations (including people experiencing homelessness) are also relatively large. To understand whether challenges exist beyond this dynamic, it is necessary to examine per capita experiences of homelessness.

By Per Capita Experiences of Homelessness. Population size is important. But another critical question is: how common is it to experience homelessness within a jurisdiction? Per capita data answers this question by highlighting the share of the general population falling into the group.

Per capita experiences of homelessness vary greatly. For example, at the state level, Mississippi represents a low rate of homelessness, with only 4 people out of every 10,000 experiencing homelessness. Californians have the highest likelihood of being unhoused, however-44 out of every 10,000 residents. Similar variation exists at the local level, with Humboldt County, California reporting the highest per capita experiences of homelessness (121 out of every 10,000 people) and the CoC serving Dearborn, Michigan having the lowest (2 out of every 10,000 people).

Several major cities with high housing costs top the list of CoCs with the highest likelihood of homelessness, including San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, and Seattle. Implementing solutions to the housing affordability crisis in those areas would tremendously advance the goal of ending homelessness.

While housing costs and population size play into per capita experiences of homelessness, there are likely other factors contributing to high per capita rates. Researchers, data experts, and others should continue efforts to identify and unpack them.

Homelessness Trends Over Time

Homelessness in 21 st century America has largely been defined by steady but modest progress since data collection began in 2007. Between 2007 and 2016, the population of people experiencing homelessness shrank most years. However, the overall reduction was only 17 percent during that nearly decade-long period.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new trend emerged: consistent annual increases in homelessness. And the unprecedented health crisis had the potential to further complicate matters. For people who were already unhoused, how would their health and economic security improvement efforts be impacted? And as businesses closed and unemployment rates rose, would new people seek help from shelters?

Tracking COVID-related population changes proved difficult. The pandemic disrupted data collection in 2021. By 2022, the full PIT Count resumed, and data showed that the homeless population had once again increased-but by only 0.3 percent. Given the unprecedented circumstances facing the nation, the shift could be characterized as being unexpectedly small. Federal policy likely impacted outcomes: COVID-19-related government interventions benefitted many people. Eviction moratoria and the federal Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program kept (and are still keeping) many people housed. Additional investments were made in homeless assistance and housing vouchers targeted to people impacted by homelessness.

Homelessness Trends: Household Types and Special Populations

Progress in ending homelessness has been uneven across subgroups since data collection began in 2007. And although the overall homeless population increased slightly between 2020 and 2022, the same was not true for all subgroups. Some actually got smaller over that time period-1) families with children, 2) youth, and 3) veterans (see visualization below).

Due to factors such as vulnerability and history of military service, these groups are often targeted by both government and non-governmental interventions. Notably, the nation's progress on veteran homelessness has been particularly robust. The size of the group was cut in half over a decade-long period (2010-2020), decreasing by 50 percent. A total of 83 communities and 3 states have functionally ended veteran homelessness. Veterans have been the focus of concerted strategies and efforts (including governmental investments) that have been successful. Similar attention and resources could be extended to other subgroups in an effort to attain similar success.

The trends related to individuals experiencing homelessness are alarming. The 2022 Point-in-Time Count reflected record highs in the history data collection. The overall subpopulation of individuals reached 421,392 people, surpassing the previous record that existed in 2007. The count of chronically homeless individuals also surpassed all previous years. These trends reflect a notable shift after a period of population declines.

Homelessness Trends: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

In 2015, HUD began publishing homelessness data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and certain gender categories. Although this isn't a long history of data reporting, it overlaps with the recent period of rising homelessness.

Uneven progress is evident between 2015 and 2022 among various identity groups. The above chart ( Subgroup Trends, 2007-2022) illustrates that some subgroups have increased in size, while others have simply stagnated or gotten smaller. For example, the trend lines for White people and Hispanics/Latinos have been moving upward.

Digging a little deeper, the below chart ( Subgroup Population Shifts Since 2015) highlights the extent of the changes occurring within each subgroup. It is clear that increases in homelessness have been particularly pronounced among people who are transgender (178 percent increase), Asian (36 percent increase), American Indian (30 percent increase), and Latino (25 percent increase).

Homelessness Trends: Shelter Utilization

Shelters are key components of America's response to homelessness. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain trends have emerged in relation to this form of temporary housing:

Unsheltered Homelessness is On the Rise. The number of people living unsheltered decreased most years between 2007 and 2015. However, mirroring the pattern for individuals experiencing homelessness, that trend has recently made an about-face turn. The unsheltered population has grown yearly since 2015, amounting to a 35 percent increase over a seven-year span.

The impacts are not equal across groups. Since 2015, some populations have experienced growths in unsheltered homelessness that far surpass 35 percent. Of specific concern are people who are transgender (231 percent increase), Asian (83 percent increase), Latino (77 percent increase), and American Indian (61 percent increase). Challenges appear to be tied to western states (California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii) that are both diverse and highly immersed in affordable housing crises. Significant majorities of these homeless subgroup members live in these states.

Systems Add More Shelter Beds in Response. As illustrated in the visualization below, the nation's shelter bed numbers have increased by 7 percent since 2019, indicating a slight increase in system capacity. Potential explanations include systems responding to increases in unsheltered homelessness, and/or the availability of pandemic relief dollars to create additional shelter beds.

Prior to this momentum, shelter bed numbers had been slowly trending downward as the number of permanent housing beds was greatly expanding. Such movements reflect fidelity to Housing First, a strategy that emphasizes stabilizing people in permanent housing as quickly possible.

Despite More Beds, Fewer People Are In Shelter. Even with the addition of more shelter beds, fewer people are staying in these facilities. The shelter population has been trending downward for several years, including 2021 (a year uniquely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a reduced congregate shelter capacity and consequent reduced inflow into shelter).

Homeless Assistance in America: Use of Resources and Capacity

Homeless services systems often don't have the resources to house everyone in need. Thus, they make a host of difficult decisions related to 1) who to help and 2) how to budget available funds among temporary shelter and permanent housing options. This section provides a window into how homeless service systems are currently making limited government investments work for a growing population of people experiencing homelessness.

Shelter Beds

As noted in the section above, the number of people living unsheltered has been on the rise since 2015. Systems may be responding to this trend by expanding shelter capacity: after a few years of decreasing the availability of shelter beds, they expanded the total number by 7 percent over the last four years.

Importantly, a major contributor to unsheltered homelessness has been consistent and overwhelming shelter bed shortages since data collection began in 2007. At the high-water mark, there were 225,000 more people experiencing homelessness in America than existing shelter beds. Today, the gap has narrowed but remains vast, largely impacting individual adults.

In 2022, an examination of national-level data reveals a shortage of a little less than 188,00 year-round shelter beds for individual adults. There are only enough to reach 55 percent of the population. National-level data points to a surplus of available accommodations for families with children and unaccompanied youth.

However, individual community circumstances vary. Thus, a specific town could have a shortage of available shelter units for families or a surplus of beds for individual adults.

Further, many communities set up temporary shelters during the winter months to prevent weather-related deaths. Thus, more people have spaces available to them than what is reflected by the year-round bed numbers.

Permanent Housing Beds

Homeless services system investments suggest a prioritization of permanent housing options over temporary shelter. This is in line with Housing First, an approach to ending homelessness that emphasizes stabilizing people in permanent housing as quickly as possible while also making services available.

Permanent housing makes up 60 percent of all beds connected to homeless services systems. The number of such slots has consistently trended upwards since data collection began, with a 26 percent growth over just the last five years. Despite these investments, homelessness (including unsheltered homelessness) is still on the rise. Available resources are simply not enough to ensure permanent housing for everyone who needs it.

Common Forms of Assistance

The top two forms of housing assistance are permanent supportive housing (37 percent of system beds) and emergency shelter (32 percent of system beds). The third most popular form of assistance (Rapid Re-Housing) is also the fastest growing: the number of beds in this category has grown by 60 percent over the last five years. Transitional housing is the only category on the decline. This model requires people to meet certain benchmarks before being awarded with permanent housing, and has fallen out of favor given growing adherence to the Housing First strategy, which is backed by research evidence.

Indicators of Risk

In the lead up to the pandemic, the nationwide poverty rate had decreased for five consecutive years. In 2020, that streak ended and the number of people living in poverty increased by approximately 3.3 million people. This trend continued into 2021 when nearly 41.4 million people, or 12.8 percent of the U.S. population, were counted in this group. Certain racial groups have even higher rates of poverty, including Black people (21.8 percent), American Indian and Alaska Native people (21.4 percent), and Hispanics/Latinos (17.5 percent). People living in poverty struggle to afford necessities such as housing, food, and medical care.

In 2021, an estimated 7.1 million American households experienced severe housing cost burden, which means that they spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing. The overall size of this group had been gradually decreasing since 2014, but rose again in 2021. The number of severely cost-burdened American households is now 25 percent higher than it was in 2007, the year the nation began monitoring homelessness data. And more troublesome patterns may exist for notable subpopulations, including people with the lowest incomes and female-headed households.

"Doubling up" (or sharing the housing of others for economic reasons) is another measure of housing hardship and risk of homelessness. Approximately 3.7 million people across the country were in these situations in 2021. Some doubled up individuals and families have fragile relationships with their hosts or face other challenges in the home, putting them at risk of literal homelessness. Similar to severely housing cost burdened households, the number of people living doubled up had been decreasing but ticked upwards again in 2021. Currently, the doubled up population is 25 percent smaller than it was in 2015, the year in which utilized data became available.

National data on households who are housing cost burdened and doubled up do not tell the whole story, as certain regions across the country face more dire challenges than can be seen for the U.S. as a whole. Severe housing cost burdened households grew at higher rates than the national average in several states and the District of Columbia. For example, since 2007, severe housing cost burdened households grew by 155 percent in Wyoming, 87 percent in Nevada, 72 percent in Maryland, and 65 percent in Hawaii. Similarly, from 2015 to 2021, the number of people doubled up increased by 59 percent in South Dakota and 36 percent in Maine.

For over a decade, the nation has not made any real progress in reducing the number of Americans at risk of literal homelessness. Despite decreasing trends in people living doubled up overall, the rise in severe housing cost numbers are concerning. Even more troubling are the risks that inflation rising to a 40-year high in 2022, expiring eviction moratoria, and fading Emergency Rental Assistance dollars pose to those at risk of experiencing homelessness.

Sources and Methodology

Data on homelessness are based on annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts conducted by Continuums of Care (CoCs) to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night. The latest full counts (sheltered and unsheltered) are from January 2022. Point-in-Time data from 2007 to 2022 are available on HUD Exchange.

Rates of homelessness compare Point-in-Time Counts to state, county, and city population data from the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program (Population and Housing Unit Estimates data tables, 2021 version). Rates for racial, ethnic, and gender demographic groups are drawn from the same source.

Data on homeless assistance, or bed capacity of homeless services programs on a given night, are reported annually by CoCs along with Point-in-Time Counts. These data are compiled in the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), which is also available on HUD Exchange for 2007 through 2022.

Estimates of at-risk populations are from analyses by the National Alliance to End Homelessness using the Census Bureau's 2021 American Community Survey 1-year microdata. Poor renter households with a severe housing cost burden are households whose total income falls under the applicable poverty threshold and who are paying 50 percent or more of total household income to housing rent. For people living doubled up, the Alliance has adopted the methodology developed by Molly K. Richard, Julie Dworkin, Katherine Grace Rule, Suniya Farooqui, Zachary Glendening, and Sam Carlson (Molly K. Richard, Julie Dworkin, Katherine Grace Rule, Suniya Farooqui, Zachary Glendening & Sam Carlson (2022): Quantifying Doubled-Up Homelessness: Presenting a New Measure Using U.S. Census Microdata, Housing Policy Debate, DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2021.1981976, Accessed from: https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Quantifying-Doubled-Up-Homelessness.pdf). Poverty is based on the composition and income of the entire household as compared to the poverty thresholds. A person is considered to be living doubled up based on their relationship to the household head and include: relatives for whom the household head does not take responsibility (based on their age and relationship) and nonrelatives who are not partners and not formally sharing responsibility for household costs (not roomers or roommates). Single adult children and relatives over 65 may be considered to be the householder's responsibility so they are included as doubling up only if the household is overcrowded. For more information, please consult the authors' study and methodology.

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The 2023 State of Homelessness provides a comprehensive analysis of homelessness in the U.S. in 2022 and reveals rising trends, disparities based on race, ethnicity, and gender, and the challenges faced in providing shelter and assistance to those in need.

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This brief is based on a new Urban Institute Press book, Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? by Urban Institute researchers Martha Burt, Laudan Y. Aron, and Edgar Lee, with Jesse Valente. Both publications were funded mainly by the Melville Charitable Trust and the Fannie Mae Foundation.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute, its trustees, or its sponsors.
Homelessness did not disappear in the 1990s, despite the nation's economic boom. In fact, it appears to have increased. On any given day, at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States, including about 200,000 children in homeless families. These startling statistics, however, do not tell the whole story.

Homelessness in America is a "revolving-door" crisis. Many people exit homelessness quickly, but many more individuals become homeless every day. During a year's time, four or five times as many people experience homelessness as are homeless on any particular day. Calculations from different sources show that in the late 1990s at least 2.3 million, and perhaps as many as 3.5 million, people experienced homelessness at some time during an average year. Because more families with children than unpartnered people enter and leave homelessness during a year, families represent a relatively large share of the annual population. As a result, during a typical year, between 900,000 and 1.4 million children are homeless with their families.

Annual homelessness figures exceed 1 percent of the total U.S. population and may represent as much as 10 percent of all poor people in this country. Even though many of these people are homeless for only a short time, each spell can be devastating. With 1 out of every 10 poor people in America facing homelessness at some time during an average year, current policies clearly are not working. Homelessness stems from desperate poverty combined with unaffordable housing in communities too strapped to support their most troubled members. These circumstances explain why between 5 and 10 percent of poor people experience homelessness in a period as short as a year.

Personal difficulties, such as mental disabilities or job loss, may increase vulnerability to homelessness, but they cannot explain the high number of people who fall into homelessness every year. And housing market trends indicate that the situation is getting worse rather than better. Current levels of housing costs, coupled with low-wage jobs and economic contraction, could push even the working poor out of their homes. Although the availability of homeless services increased significantly during the past decade, meeting the needs of people once they become homeless is not enough.

A concerted national strategy is needed to prevent homelessness, and to end quickly discrete episodes of homelessness if they become inevitable. That strategy must include new housing resources as well as community-building strategies that address the societal factors contributing to homelessness. Each community must work to supply affordable housing, improve schools, and provide support services for those in need. Only strategies that address systemic problems as well as provide emergency relief can eliminate homelessness in this country.
WHY HOMELESSNESS HERE, AND WHY NOW?
Structural, personal, and political factors influence the level of homelessness and determine where it will occur most often. Structural factors in the United States that have fueled the problem include

Changing housing markets for extremely low-income families and single adults are pricing more and more people with below-poverty incomes out of the market.

Dwindling employment opportunities for people with a high school education or less are contributing to the widening gap between rich and poor.

The removal of institutional supports for people with severe mental illness, epitomized by drastic reductions in the use of long-term hospitalization for the mentally ill, are leaving many individuals with few housing options.

Racial, ethnic, and class discrimination in housing, along with local zoning restrictions that exclude affordable housing alternatives, persists in many areas.

If housing were inexpensive, or people could earn enough to afford housing, very few individuals would face homelessness. But housing costs have risen steadily across the country, and they have skyrocketed in many areas. Further, the inability to afford housing is concentrated among households with incomes below the poverty level, whose members account for the vast majority of people entering homelessness. At the same time, people with little education or job training find it increasingly difficult to earn enough money to raise their incomes above the poverty level, even if they are employed full-time and work overtime.

Once structural factors have created the conditions for homelessness, personal factors can increase a person's vulnerability to losing his or her home. Many factors can make a poor person more susceptible to homelessness, including limited education or skills training, mental or physical disability, lack of family to rely on (e.g., after being placed in foster care), and alcohol or drug abuse. But without the presence of structural fault lines, these personal vulnerabilities could not produce today's high level of homelessness.

Public policies may moderate the effects of both structural and personal factors to prevent homelessness. Some European countries guarantee their citizens housing, and many provide supports for families (e.g., infant and child care and income subsidies) well beyond those available in the United States. Universal health insurance is also available in most European countries. These safety net programs reduce the probability of homelessness, even in places where housing costs are high and wages are low, because they ease the pressure on household budgets.

In the United States, dramatic reductions in federally supported housing over the past 20 years, coupled with the current reductions in safety net programs, place individuals and families squeezed by high housing costs and with few resources at high risk of homelessness. A certain proportion of these people will experience at least a brief episode during which they lack a place to live. If they are struggling with substance abuse, mental illness, or both, and reside in an area where housing is increasingly beyond the reach of low-wage worker households, then homelessness is likely.
A SNAPSHOT OF HOMELESS ADULTS TODAY
On any given day, the adult population using homeless assistance programs consists mostly of men by themselves (61 percent). Another 15 percent are women by themselves, 15 percent are households with children, and 9 percent are people with another adult but not with children. Because families are mostly likely to qualify for public assistance programs, they are less likely than individuals to be homeless, or to be homeless for long. Unattached adults are not eligible for most safety net programs, so they are more likely to be homeless and to experience long or repeated spells of homelessness.

In terms of racial and ethnic composition, little difference exists between homeless families and single adults. About equal proportions (40 to 41 percent) are African American and white, 11 to 12 percent are Hispanic, 6 to 8 percent are Native American, and 1 percent are another race. The high representation of minorities in the homeless population compared with housed people stems from their higher likelihood of being very poor and has no correlation to their race or ethnicity. Geographically, 71 percent of homeless people who rely on homeless assistance programs reside in central cities, 21 percent in suburban or urban fringe areas, and 9 percent in rural areas.
Income and Work
Half of all homeless adults receive less than $300 per month-in income, putting them at about 30 to 40 percent of the federal poverty level. In addition, 62 percent have at least a high school diploma, and 44 percent did some work for pay in the month before being surveyed, although only 13 percent held a regular job. Almost half get one or more means-tested public benefits, with food stamps by far the most common type of assistance. Homeless families' welfare eligibility accounts, in part, for the level of income they report; most single people's ineligibility for welfare helps explain their very low incomes.
Disabilities
Many homeless adults have physical and other types of disabilities. Almost half (46 percent) reported chronic physical conditions. Problems with alcohol, drugs, and mental health among homeless people are well documented and often occur together. Among adults using homeless services, 31 percent reported a combination of mental health and substance abuse problems (alcohol and/or drugs) within the past year. An additional 17 percent reported problems with drugs and/or alcohol problems, but no mental health problems. Further, 12 percent reported only problems with alcohol, and 15 percent reported only mental health problems. Only one in four homeless adults did not report any mental health or substance abuse problems during the past year.
Childhood Homelessness
The homeless population includes not only adults but also the children these adults bring with them into homelessness. One-fourth of homeless people are children in homeless families. These children are much more likely than housed children to experience serious difficulties, including physical, cognitive, emotional, and mental problems. Further, childhood homelessness translates into a greater risk of homelessness in adulthood.

Most children living with homeless parents are very young (42 percent are under age 6) and are therefore physically and emotionally vulnerable in the event of household disruptions. Children living with homeless parents, however, are not the only children affected by homelessness. Three out of five homeless people are parents, and half these parents have at least one child age 17 or younger. But only one in four of these children lives with the homeless parent.

Children of homeless mothers are much more likely to stay with their homeless parent (54 percent) than are children of homeless fathers (7 percent). Children of homeless fathers typically live with their mothers outside of homelessness. Children not living with their homeless mothers tend to live with relatives other than their fathers (46 percent) or in foster care (19 percent). A period in foster care is a strong predictor of future homelessness.
Predictors of Homelessness
As noted earlier, societal factors create the conditions within which individual characteristics can lead to homelessness. Of individual factors, extreme poverty (incomes at less than half the federal poverty level) is, of course, the most important predictor. Virtually every study shows that adverse childhood experiences are also strong predictors of homelessness. These experiences include physical and/or sexual abuse by family members and removal from one's home to be placed in foster care or other institutions. Also important are alcohol or drug abuse as a teenager, current alcohol or drug abuse, mentalhealth problems, chronic physical problems, and, for males, incarceration.
Patterns of Homelessness
Clearly, homeless people's lives differ in many ways. The pattern of a person's homelessness reveals much information about how to intervene and ways to reduce or eliminate such episodes. People who are homeless for the first time and experiencing a single crisis may need relatively simple remedies, such as rental assistance, help negotiating with landlords, or referrals to public benefits or services. Persons with repeated or long episodes of homelessness, however, are likely to need considerably more support for longer periods of time.

The proportion of people displaying a particular homelessness pattern is hard to calculate, because the definitions of homelessness and the type of data used in such calculations differ widely. Using the most common type of data—surveys conducted at a single point in time-about one-fourth of homeless people report being continuously homeless for at least five years, and about one-fourth say they have gone in and out of homelessness numerous times. The rest (about half) are experiencing a first or second episode, which has usually lasted less than a year, or in some cases, only a few weeks or months.

Data reflecting longer periods—for example, one year—capture many of the people experiencing short-term crises who leave homelessness as well as the additional people entering short-term homelessness. People who have weathered many episodes also tend to leave and return, or to leave and be replaced by others. Meanwhile, chronically homeless people remain without a place to live during the entire period. By the end of the year, chronically homeless people will make up a smaller proportion of the homeless population during the year than at a single point in time. Conversely, those with very short spells will account for a higher proportion of the population over a year's time than on any given day.

The experience of the past 15 years indicates that the number of very poor people driven into homelessness for at least short periods has not diminished significantly. Families with children are still a large part of the mix. Over the past 15 years, the resources of the homeless service system, which gives people in desperate circumstances a place to go for help, have also increased. While essential, these services make visible and undeniable the severity of structural factors currently operating to produce homelessness.
GROWTH OF THE HOMELESS SERVICE SYSTEM
Largely because of federal leadership and funding—through the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 and its annual modifications—the homeless service system in the United States grew tremendously in the 1990s. Available beds more than doubled, from about 275,000 in 1988 to about 607,000 in 1996. Emergency shelter capacity increased about 20 percent during that period. The availability of transitional housing and permanent housing with supportive services for disabled formerly homeless people also grew. Such programs were virtually non-existent in the 1980s. By 1996, at an estimated 274,000 beds (160,000 transitional and 114,000 permanent), capacity at these sophisticated programs equaled that of emergency shelters a decade earlier.

With the growth of shelter capacity, the homeless service network was able to serve more people, and more people in desperate circumstances came forward seeking services. Rather than being a self-fulfilling development, the availability of services and the demand among the poor indicate a profound level of need. Changes in emergency food services confirm this interpretation. Emergency food services receive far less government support than do shelter and housing programs. Yet they too grew during the 1990s in response to the greater demand. In 1996, central-city soup kitchens and mobile food programs served almost four times as many meals per day than they did in 1987. No similar evidence is available for food pantries, which mostly serve poor housed families rather than homeless people, but they too likely saw demand swell. These statistics show that temporary assistance, which has increased over the past decade, cannot prevent many individuals from becoming homeless.
WHAT SHOULD COMMUNITIES AND LEGISLATORS BE DOING?
Virtually all federal programs related to homelessness focus on serving people who are already homeless. When assistance is restricted to those who are homeless tonight, not much can be done to prevent homelessness tomorrow. Developing capacity to serve those who are already homeless while ignoring prevention does little to change the underlying problems among the very poor. Only policies that expand the availability of affordable housing to people with below-poverty incomes will ensure stable homes for these individuals. However, policies during the past decade have moved in the opposite direction.

The results of a decade and a half of research to determine what works to end homelessness are fairly conclusive about the most effective approaches. Providing housing helps currently homeless people leave homelessness. It also prevents people from losing their homes. In fact, without housing, virtually nothing else works. Housing often needs to be accompanied by supportive services, at least temporarily, but such services without a housing component cannot end homelessness.

Evaluations of demonstration projects, and the experiences of providers in many communities around the country, also have shown that even the most chronic, most severely mentally ill people can be brought off the streets and can live stable lives, if they are supplied with housing. The same is true for families headed by a mother struggling with mental illness. With the appropriate help, even people with extensive histories of substance abuse have left the streets and obtained stable housing. Furthermore, the evidence shows not only that making these services available works to end homelessness, but also that, for long-term homeless people with substance abuse and mental health histories, these service provisions are virtually cost-neutral.

With adequate housing resources, homelessness can also be averted for the many people who approach the homeless service system because they do not know where else to turn. Communities throughout the country that have committed such resources have developed a variety of effective programs to prevent homelessness, including

Programs that negotiate with landlords and help with bad credit histories;

Housing trust funds, rental assistance programs, and access to funds that can solve a household's short-term problems, such as paying back rent, security deposits, and other moving expenses;

Programs that encourage developers to build or renovate attractive, accessible properties; and help managers ensure good maintainence and repair; and

Programs that help people develop personal and family financial management skills, establish or reestablish good credit and rental histories, and retain housing.

When a community ensures that housing within reasonable price ranges exists, offers its members living-wage jobs, provides quality schooling to develop individuals' capacity to hold good jobs, and offers other supports for families and individuals, people can maintain stable housing. But far too few communities have these resources or are positioned to provide them. The answer? Put simply:

Rebuild communities, especially the most troubled ones;

Build more housing and subsidize the costs to make it affordable to people with incomes below the poverty level;

Help more people afford housing, by providing them with better schools, better training, and better jobs; and

Prevent the next generation of children from experiencing homelessness.

Without these basic building blocks of a civil society, we are creating an underclass of persistently poor people vulnerable to homelessness. The costs of this neglect are too high in terms of both individual lives and public dollars for health, mental health, and correctional institutions. It is more effective, more humane, and ultimately more fiscally prudent to invest in prevention and support that leads to self-sufficiency and independence among all residents.

REFERENCES

Burt, Martha, Laudan Y. Aron, and Edgar Lee, with Jesse Valente. 2001. Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing? Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute Press.

Culhane, Dennis P., Stephen Metraux, and Trevor Hadley. 2001. "The Impact of Supportive Housing for Homeless people with Severe Mental Illness on the Utilization of the Public Health, Corrections, and Emergency Shelter Systems: The New York-New York Initiative." Fannie Mae working paper series, May. http://fanniemaefoundation.org/programs/pdf/rep_culhane_prepub.pdf. (Accessed August 1, 2001)

Nelson, Kathryn P. 2001. "What Do We Know about Shortages of Affordable Rental Housing?" Testimony before House Committee on Financial Services, Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee, May 3, 2001.

Shinn, M., and J. Baumohl. 1999. "Rethinking the Prevention of Homelessness." In Practical Lessons: The 1998 Symposium on Homelessness Research, edited by L.B. Fosburg and D.L. Dennis. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services.

U.S. Census Bureau. 1996. National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Client s. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.

Notes

1. Statistics in this brief are based on the 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau (1996). The authors also make comparisons with results from their 1987 study of homelessness (see Burt et al. 2001).

2. See Nelson, (2001),with the Office of Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

3. See Shinn and Baumohl (1999).

4. See Culhane, Metraux, and Hadley (2001).

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Homelessness did not disappear in the 1990s, despite the nation?s economic boom. In fact, it appears to have increased. On any given day, at least 800,000 people are homeless in the United States, including about 200,000 children in homeless families. These startling statistics, however, do not tell the whole story.