In 2023, there were about 653,104 homeless people estimated to be living in the United States, the highest number of homeless people recorded within the provided time period. In comparison, the second-highest number of homeless people living in the U.S. within this time period was in 2007, at 647,258. How is homelessness calculated? Calculating homelessness is complicated for several different reasons. For one, it is challenging to determine how many people are homeless as there is no direct definition for homelessness. Additionally, it is difficult to try and find every single homeless person that exists. Sometimes they cannot be reached, leaving people unaccounted for. In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates the homeless population by counting the number of people on the streets and the number of people in homeless shelters on one night each year. According to this count, Los Angeles City and New York City are the cities with the most homeless people in the United States. Homelessness in the United States Between 2022 and 2023, New Hampshire saw the highest increase in the number of homeless people. However, California was the state with the highest number of homeless people, followed by New York and Florida. The vast amount of homelessness in California is a result of multiple factors, one of them being the extreme high cost of living, as well as opposition to mandatory mental health counseling and drug addiction. However, the District of Columbia had the highest estimated rate of homelessness per 10,000 people in 2023. This was followed by New York, Vermont, and Oregon.

When analyzing the ratio of homelessness to state population, New York, Vermont, and Oregon had the highest rates in 2023. However, Washington, D.C. had an estimated 73 homeless individuals per 10,000 people, which was significantly higher than any of the 50 states. Homeless people by race The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development performs homeless counts at the end of January each year, which includes people in both sheltered and unsheltered locations. The estimated number of homeless people increased to 653,104 in 2023 – the highest level since 2007. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher, as some individuals prefer to stay with family or friends - making it challenging to count the actual number of homeless people living in the country. In 2023, nearly half of the people experiencing homelessness were white, while the number of Black homeless people exceeded 243,000. How many veterans are homeless in America? The  number of homeless veterans in the United States has halved since 2010. The state of California, which is currently suffering a homeless crisis, accounted for the highest number of homeless veterans in 2022. There are many causes of homelessness among veterans of the U.S. military, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse problems, and a lack of affordable housing.

In 2023, there were an estimated 324,854 white homeless people in the United States, the most out of any ethnicity. In comparison, there were around 243,624 Black or African American homeless people in the U.S. How homelessness is counted The actual number of homeless individuals in the U.S. is difficult to measure. The Department of Housing and Urban Development uses point-in-time estimates, where employees and volunteers count both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people during the last 10 days of January. However, it is very likely that the actual number of homeless individuals is much higher than the estimates, which makes it difficult to say just how many homeless there are in the United States. Unsheltered homeless in the United States California is well-known in the U.S. for having a high homeless population, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego all have high proportions of unsheltered homeless people. While in many states, the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that there are more sheltered homeless people than unsheltered, this estimate is most likely in relation to the method of estimation.

In 2023, about 68.4 percent of the estimated number of homeless individuals in the United States were male, compared to 30 percent who were female.

In 2023, the estimated number of homeless people in the United States was highest in California, with about 181,399 homeless people living in California in that year.

This report displays the data communities reported to HUD about the nature of and amount of persons who are homeless as part of HUD's Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. This data is self-reported by communities to HUD as part of its competitive Continuum of Care application process. The website allows users to select PIT data from 2005 to present. Users can use filter by CoC, states, or the entire nation.

Table of homeless population by Year (for years 2009 through 2012)

This report outlines the key findings of the annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count and Housing Inventory Count (HIC) conducted in January of each year. Specifically, this report provides estimates of homelessness self-reported, as well as estimates of chronically homeless persons, homeless veterans, and homeless children and youth.

Current link at the time of dataset creation: https://www.hudexchange.info/resource/4832/2015-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness/

"Ratio of Homeless Population to General Population in major US Cities in 2009. *This represents a list of large U.S. cities with a similar street count methodology for which DHS was able to confirm a recent Census; 2009 results are not yet available for LA, SF, and Chicago. All population figures are from the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimate."

Abstract (en): The DC Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS) was conducted in 1991, and included special analyses of homeless and transient populations and of women delivering live births in the DC hospitals. DC*MADS was undertaken to assess the full extent of the drug problem in one metropolitan area. The study was comprised of 16 separate studies that focused on different sub-groups, many of which are typically not included or are underrepresented in household surveys. The Homeless and Transient Population study examines the prevalence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use among members of the homeless and transient population aged 12 and older in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Statistical Area (DC MSA). The sample frame included respondents from shelters, soup kitchens and food banks, major cluster encampments, and literally homeless people. Data from the questionnaires include history of homelessness, living arrangements and population movement, tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, consequences of use, treatment history, illegal behavior and arrest, emergency room treatment and hospital stays, physical and mental health, pregnancy, insurance, employment and finances, and demographics. Drug specific data include age at first use, route of administration, needle use, withdrawal symptoms, polysubstance use, and perceived risk. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. Response Rates: The institutional response rate (i.e., for shelters and soup kitchens) was 82.6 percent. The individual interview response rate was 86.1 percent. The overall response rate was 71 percent. Persons aged 12 and older in the DC MSA who were either literally homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, including persons who spent the previous night in an emergency shelter, in a nondomicile (e.g., vacant building, city park, car, or on the street) or who were using soup kitchens or emergency food banks. The Homeless and Transient Population study consisted of 908 interviews from four overlapping sampling frames: 477 interviews with residents in 93 shelters, 224 interviews with patrons of 31 soup kitchens and food banks, 143 interviews with "literally homeless" people from 18 major cluster encampments, and 64 interviews with literally homeless people from an area probability sample of 432 census blocks in the MSA. People who were cognitively impaired and could not complete the interview were excluded from the survey. Impairment was defined as extreme intoxification or scoring more than nine on the Short Blessed Exam (Katzman, Brown, Fuld, Peck, Schecter, and Schimmel, 1983). 2008-07-24 New files were added. These files included one or more of the following: Stata setup, SAS transport (CPORT), SPSS system, Stata system, SAS supplemental syntax, and Stata supplemental syntax files, and a tab-delimited ASCII data file. Also, the CASEID variable has been added to the dataset.2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions. Funding insitution(s): United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Produced by Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park, NC.

In the United States in 2023, 89.2 percent of the homeless population living in El Dorado County, California were unsheltered.

Between 2022 and 2023, New Hampshire had the highest positive percentage change in the estimated number of homeless people in the United States, with the number of homeless people living in New Hampshire increasing by 52.1 percent within this time period.

A feature layer of the United States with data by state on the 2013 homeless population and the change in homeless population between 2012 and 2013.

This dataset provides information on individuals experiencing sheltered homelessness in the Austin/Travis County Continuum of Care (CoC) in a given fiscal year. "Sheltered" homelessness refers to individuals residing in emergency shelter, safe haven, or transitional housing project types. This measure overlaps, but is different from, the Point in Time (PIT) Count (SD23 Measure EOA.E.1a), which is a snapshot of both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on one night in January.

Data Source: The data for this measure was reported to the City of Austin by the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO). Each year, ECHO, as the homeless Continuum of Care Lead Agency (CoC Lead), aggregates and reports community wide data (including this measure) to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This data is referred to as System Performance Measures as they are designed to examine how well a community is responding to homelessness at a system level.

View more details and insights related to this data set on the story page: https://data.austintexas.gov/stories/s/2ejn-hrh2

Data extraction sheet. (XLSX 56Â kb)

The purpose of the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Programs is to reduce the incidence of homelessness in CoC communities by assisting homeless individuals and families in quickly transitioning to self-sufficiency and permanent housing. The programs administered by HUD award funds competitively and require the development of a Continuum of Care system in the community where assistance is being sought. A continuum of care system is designed to address the critical problem of homelessness through a coordinated community-based process of identifying needs and building a system to address those needs. The approach is predicated on the understanding that homelessness is not caused merely by a lack of shelter, but involves a variety of underlying, unmet needs - physical, economic, and social. Funds are granted based on the competition following the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA).

This statistic shows the estimated number of chronically homeless people in the United States in 2020, by state. In 2020, there were about 51,785 chronically homeless people living in California.

A novel and comprehensive cross-sectional dataset (2017) was developed to document and measure municipal supportive housing policy choices and key political factors associated with these choices. The dataset is comprised of 232 municipalities of 354 municipal continuums of care (CoCs) from the HUD 2016 CoC database in order to control for cities directly receiving federal homeless funding. The final sample accounts for 66 percent of all CoCs in the U.S. Municipalities were chosen based on their inclusion in the HUD 2016 Point in Time (PIT) count survey, therefore selecting municipalities with a CoC that are receiving federal funding for homelessness solutions. This is a comprehensive, cross-sectional dataset of municipalities across the United States that includes measures of local homeless policies; measures of local political indicators including local policy conservatism, fragmentation, municipal governmental structure; other relevant social policies (Sanctuary City status, Medicaid expansion, state level supportive housing policy); local demographic characteristics; local economic factors.

Homelessness Report December 2024. Published by Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA-4.0).Homelessness data Official homelessness data is produced by local authorities through the Pathway Accommodation and Support System (PASS). PASS was rolled-out nationally during the course of 2013. The Department’s official homelessness statistics are published on a monthly basis and refer to the number of homeless persons accommodated in emergency accommodation funded and overseen by housing authorities during a specific count week, typically the last full week of the month. The reports are produced through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS), collated on a regional basis and compiled and published by the Department. Homelessness reporting commenced in this format in 2014. The format of the data may change or vary over time due to administrative and/or technology changes and improvements. The administration of homeless services is organised across nine administrative regions, with one local authority in each of the regions, “the lead authority”, having overall responsibility for the disbursement of Exchequer funding. In each region a Joint Homelessness Consultative Forum exists which includes representation from the relevant State and non-governmental organisations involved in the delivery of homeless services in a particular region. Delegated arrangements are governed by an annually agreed protocol between the Department and the lead authority in each region. These protocols set out the arrangements, responsibilities and financial/performance data reporting requirements for the delegation of funding from the Department. Under Sections 38 and 39 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 a statutory Management Group exists for each regional forum. This is comprised of representatives from the relevant housing authorities and the Health Service Executive, and it is the responsibility of the Management Group to consider issues around the need for homeless services and to plan for the implementation, funding and co-ordination of such services. In relation to the terms used in the report for the accommodation types see explanation below: PEA - Private Emergency Accommodation: this may include hotels, B&Bs and other residential facilities that are used on an emergency basis. Supports are provided to services users on a visiting supports basis. STA - Supported Temporary Accommodation: accommodation, including family hubs, hostels, with onsite professional support. TEA - Temporary Emergency Accommodation: emergency accommodation with no (or minimal) support.

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