The number of people experiencing homelessness once again set a new record in the United States last year — 771,480 — according to the latest annual report to Congress by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). That amounts to one in every 435 people living in the United States. And it was an 18.1% increase over the previous year.
The figures come from an annual point-in-time count that is conducted in the last 10 days of January. The count includes people who are sleeping in an emergency shelter, transitional housing program, or who were unsheltered, or who were sleeping in cars, trucks, and RVs when that’s because they have nowhere else to sleep. It doesn’t count people who are temporarily staying with family or friends.
The national figure included nearly 150,000 children under the age of 18, a 33% increase from the previous year. It also included more than 42,150 people who were over the age of 64.
Women and girls made up 39% of those experiencing homelessness overall, but they were more likely to be sheltered: Women accounted for 44% of those who were staying in shelters and 31% of homeless sleeping unsheltered.
Homelessness among veterans declined by 8% from January 2023 to January 2024, continuing a trend which has seen the number of homeless vets drop by 55% since 2009, thanks to targeted and sustained funding to reduce veteran homelessness.
HUD has been conducting the annual point-in-time count since 2007. The number of people experiencing homelessness was gradually declining from 2007 to 2016, but gradually increased since then, and has shot up rapidly since 2022.
HUD says the increase reflected a worsening shortage of affordable housing, an end to COVID-era homeless programs that paid for hotel stays and rental assistance, the end of COVID-era bans on eviction, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, and rising numbers of people immigrating to the United States.
Oregon, New York, and Vermont had the highest rates of homelessness in the country — more than one in every 200 residents. Oregon also had the second highest rate of unsheltered homelessness in the country (62% of those counted as homeless were unsheltered), after California (66%). In Washington, the rate was 51%, and in Idaho it was 50%.
The point in time count found a total of 22,875 people experiencing homelessness in Oregon, 31,554 in Washington, and 2,750 in Idaho.
