In 2023, there were about ******* 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 *******. 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.

The graph displays the top 15 states by an estimated number of homeless people in the United States for the year 2025. The x-axis represents U.S. states, while the y-axis shows the number of homeless individuals in each state. California has the highest homeless population with 187,084 individuals, followed by New York with 158,019, while Hawaii places last in this dataset with 11,637. This bar graph highlights significant differences across states, with some states like California and New York showing notably higher counts compared to others, indicating regional disparities in homelessness levels across the country.

Context

This database contains the data reported in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR). It represents a point-In-time count (PIT) of homeless individuals, as well as a housing inventory count (HIC) conducted annually.

The data represent the most comprehensive national-level assessment of homelessness in America, including PIT and HIC estimates of homelessness, as well as estimates of chronically homeless persons, homeless veterans, and homeless children and youth.

These data can be trended over time and correlated with other metrics of housing availability and affordability, in order to better understand the particular type of housing resources that may be needed from a social determinants of health perspective.

HUD captures these data annually through the Continuum of Care (CoC) program. CoC-level reporting data have been crosswalked to county levels for purposes of analysis of this dataset.

Querying BigQuery tables

You can use the BigQuery Python client library to query tables in this dataset in Kernels. Note that methods available in Kernels are limited to querying data. Tables are at bigquery-public-data.sdoh_hud_pit_homelessness

Sample Query

What has been the change in the number of homeless veterans in the state of New York’s CoC Regions since 2012? Determine how the patterns of homeless veterans have changes across the state of New York

homeless_2018 AS ( SELECT Homeless_Veterans AS Vet18, CoC_Name
FROM bigquery-public-data.sdoh_hud_pit_homelessness.hud_pit_by_coc WHERE SUBSTR(CoC_Number,0,2) = "NY" AND Count_Year = 2018 ),

veterans_change AS ( SELECT homeless_2012.COC_Name, Vet12, Vet18, Vet18 - Vet12 AS VetChange FROM homeless_2018 JOIN homeless_2012 ON homeless_2018.CoC_Name = homeless_2012.CoC_Name )

SELECT * FROM veterans_change

This dataset contains estimates of homelessness, as well as estimates of chronically homeless persons, homeless veterans, and homeless children and youth provided by The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The estimates cover the period of years 2007-2017 and are at national, state and Continuums of Care (CoC) Point-In-Time (PIT) level.

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.

Comprehensive dataset containing 3,632 verified Homeless shelter businesses in United States with complete contact information, ratings, reviews, and location data.

The RHY-HMIS Dashboard allows grantees and RHY federal project officers to visualize their data, compare their data against other programs and targets, share data, and easily insert specific data fields into reports. They can see their own grant-level data as well as state, regional, and national RHY-HMIS data. Authorized grantees have special logon credentials that allow them to see their own grant-level data as well as state, regional, and national RHY data. The general public will not need to log on. Public access users will not be able to see any grantee-level data but will be able to access state, regional, and national data. Units of Response: RHY Grantees, Runaway and Homeless Youth Type of Data: Administrative Tribal Data: Unavailable Periodicity: Biannual Demographic Indicators: Disability;Ethnicity;Housing Status;Military;Race SORN: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/04/02/2015-07440/privacy-act-of-1974-system-of-records-notice Data Use Agreement: Unavailable Data Use Agreement Location: Unavailable Granularity: Grant;Program;State Spatial: United States Geocoding: Region;State

"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."

This dataset includes the daily number of families and individuals residing in the Department of Homeless Services (DHS) shelter system and the daily number of families applying to the DHS shelter system.

This dataset includes data starting from 01/03/2021. For older records, please refer to https://data.cityofnewyork.us/d/dwrg-kzni

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.

The Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership is a voluntary federal-state enterprise created for the purpose of merging employee, and employer data to provide a set of enhanced labor market statistics known collectively as Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). The QWI are a set of economic indicators including employment, job creation, earnings, and other measures of employment flows. For the purposes of this dataset, LED data for 2018 is aggregated to Census Summary Level 070 (State + County + County Subdivision + Place/Remainder), and joined with the Emergency Solutions Grantee (ESG) areas spatial dataset for FY2018. The Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), formally the Emergency Shelter Grants, program is designed to identify sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons, as well as those at risk of homelessness, and provide the services necessary to help those persons quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness. The ESG is a non-competitive formula grant awarded to recipients which are state governments, large cities, urban counties, and U.S. territories. Recipients make these funds available to eligible sub-recipients, which can be either local government agencies or private nonprofit organizations. The recipient agencies and organizations, which actually run the homeless assistance projects, apply for ESG funds to the governmental grantee, and not directly to HUD. Please note that this version of the data does not include Community Planning and Development (CPD) entitlement grantees. LED data for CPD entitlement areas can be obtained from the LED for CDBG Grantee Areas feature service. To learn more about the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership visit: https://lehd.ces.census.gov/, for questions about the spatial attribution of this dataset, please reach out to us at GISHelpdesk@hud.gov. Data Dictionary: DD_LED for ESG Grantee Areas

Date of Coverage: ESG-2021/LED-2018

Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Programs Housing Inventory Count Reports are a snapshot of a CoC’s housing inventory, available at the national and state level, and for each CoC. The reports are based on the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), an inventory of housing conducted on a single night during the last ten days in January. It reflects the number of beds and units available on the night designated for the count that are dedicated to serve persons who are homeless. The HIC also includes information about unmet need. Note: This information has not been independently verified by HUD. Where possible, CoCs are encouraged to use HMIS data to generate the HIC. Since compliance with these standards may vary, the reliability and consistency of the homeless counts may also vary among CoCs. Additionally, a shift in the methodology a CoC uses to count the homeless may cause a change in homeless counts between reporting periods. These reports are available annually starting from 2005.

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).

The DC Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DCMADS) was
conducted in 1991, and included special analyses of homeless and
transient populations and of women delivering live births in the DC
hospitals. DCMADS 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.This study has 1 Data Set.

This data tracks the number of beds available for runaway and homeless youth and young adults as well as the number and percent vacant. Data include Crisis Shelters, Crisis Shelters HYA (Homeless Young Adults), Transitional Independent Living, and Transitional Independent Living HYA. For more information about programs, visit https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dycd/services/services.page and https://discoverdycd.dycdconnect.nyc/home.

For the RHY Data Collection, please follow this link.

It is estimated that over a million young people run away or become homeless each year. These youth face increasingly complex issues, including substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, and AIDS. The serious issues faced by these youths are coupled with funding constraints among almost all agencies providing services to this population. In 1974 the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) authorized funding to assist community based programs to serve youth who were not otherwise being served by traditional human service agencies. The funding was used for the operation of basic center programs which would provide support for runaway and homeless youth (RHY). The programs offered emergency shelter, crisis intervention services, and family reunification services. In 1988 the Transitional Living Program was introduced in order to provide services to older youth requiring assistance in becoming self-sufficient.While helping to support at-risk youth, the FYSB laws also mandate that certain data be regularly collected and reported. For example, FYSB supported agencies must report on the profile of the youth and families they serve, and provide an overview of the services which they deliver under their grant programs. In order to assist these grantees in their reporting responsibilities, FYSB funded the development of a Runaway and Homeless Youth Management Information System (RHY MIS). The RHY MIS was designed to provide comprehensive information on youth served, services provided, and programs which provide the services.The RHY MIS was designed, developed, and implemented by Information Technology International (ITI). Gradual implementation of the MIS began in 1992 with approximately 400 RHY grantee sites across the country. By 1995, virtually all existing grant programs had at least one staff member who had been trained and grantees were expected to use the MIS and submit data to FYSB on a quarterly basis.The fiscal year 1996 RHY MIS dataset contains data submitted during the federal fiscal year 1996. Data are included from participating agencies in 53 US States and Territories. The dataset includes three files. A demographics file contains 72540 observations and 153 variables. Two additional files contain 64100 observations and a combined 235 variables pertaining to youth problems and services provided.

Investigators: Papadopoulos, Helen & Diepenbrock, Elaine

EDFacts Homeless, Neglected, or Delinquent, 2010-11 (EDFacts HND:2010-11), is one of 17 'topics' identified in the EDFacts documentation (in this database, each 'topic' is entered as a separate study); program data is available since 2005 at

This study examines the spatial patterns of homelessness and resources for the homeless population in Louisville, KY with the goal of identifying where homeless populations are located in relation to resources. Working with census data and some of the resources for the homeless, this study uncovers the realities that the homeless face in different parts of the city. This research research was made as a senior thesis for the University of Louisville's department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences. Table 1. Income and Poverty between the United States and Louisville/Jefferson County metro government, Kentucky in 2019 (United States Census Bureau 2021)Homeless people are thought of as less than full citizens. Whether the rest of the city's people agree or disagree, they are citizens, and should have rights to the city as much as everyone else. The opioid crisis, unmanaged mental illnesses, lack of employment, and other issues like limitations on affordable housing have increased the population of homeless people in Louisville in recent years (Reed 2021). More than 1.5 million children experience homelessness in the United States (Poverty USA 2019). The poverty rate in Louisville, Kentucky is 15.9%, and 1 in 10 renters were facing eviction as of 2019. The 2019 Point In Time Count shows that on a randomly picked night in Louisville, 1071 of the city's people are experiencing homelessness, which is an increase of 15% from the 2018 count (Coalition for the Homeless 2019). The previous data compared to the count for 2020 of 1102 people, shows a trend in increasing homeless population (Coalition for the Homeless 2020).

The Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), formally the Emergency Shelter Grants, program is designed to identify sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons, as well as those at risk of homelessness, and provide the services necessary to help those persons quickly regain stability in permanent housing after experiencing a housing crisis and/or homelessness. The ESG is a non-competitive formula grant awarded to recipients which are state governments, large cities, urban counties, and U.S. territories. Recipients make these funds available to eligible sub-recipients, which can be either local government agencies or private nonprofit organizations. The recipient agencies and organizations, which actually run the homeless assistance projects, apply for ESG funds to the governmental grantee, and not directly to HUD. To learn more about the Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program visit: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/esg/, for questions about the spatial attribution of this dataset, please reach out to us at GISHelpdesk@hud.gov. Data Dictionary: DD_ESG Grantee Areas

Date of Coverage: 2018

The Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership is a voluntary federal-state enterprise created for the purpose of merging employee, and employer data to provide a set of enhanced labor market statistics known collectively as Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). The QWI are a set of economic indicators including employment, job creation, earnings, and other measures of employment flows. For the purposes of this dataset, LED data for 2018 is aggregated to Census Summary Level 070 (State + County + County Subdivision + Place/Remainder), and joined with the Continuum of Care Program grantee areas spatial dataset for FY2017. The Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance 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). Please note that this version of the data does not include Community Planning and Development (CPD) entitlement grantees. LED data for CPD entitlement areas can be obtained from the LED for CDBG Grantee Areas feature service. To learn more about the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership visit: https://lehd.ces.census.gov/, for questions about the spatial attribution of this dataset, please reach out to us at GISHelpdesk@hud.gov. Data Dictionary: DD_LED for CoC Grantee Areas

Date of Coverage: CoC-2021/LED-2018