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.

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

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.

"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."

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.

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.

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

Presents the number of individuals for each shelter facility type by borough and community district

Analysis of ‘Directory Of Unsheltered Street Homeless To General Population Ratio 2012’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/3938b01a-ab66-4fd1-967a-478702f97b87 on 27 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

"Ratio of Homeless Population to General Population in major US Cities in 2012. *This represents a list of large U.S. cities for which DHS was able to confirm a recent estimate of the unsheltered population. Unsheltered estimates are from 2011 except for Seattle and New York City (2012) and Chicago (2009). All General Population figures are from the 2010 U.S. Census enumeration."

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

The American Community Survey (ACS) 5 Year 2016-2020 socioeconomic estimate data is a subset of information derived from the following census tables:B08013 - Aggregate Travel Time To Work Of Workers By Sex;B08303 - Travel Time To Work;B17019 - Poverty Status In The Past 12 Months Of Families By Household Type By Tenure;B17021 - Poverty Status Of Individuals In The Past 12 Months By Living Arrangement;B19001 - Household Income In The Past 12 Months;B19013 - Median Household Income In The Past 12 Months;B19025 - Aggregate Household Income In The Past 12 Months;B19113 - Median Family Income In The Past 12 Months;B19202 - Median Non-family Household Income In The Past 12 Months;B23001 - Sex By Age By Employment Status For The Population 16 Years And Over;B25014 - Tenure By Occupants Per Room;B25026 - Total Population in Occupied Housing Units by Tenure by year Householder Moved into Unit;B25106 - Tenure By Housing Costs As A Percentage Of Household Income In The Past 12 Months;C24010 - Sex By Occupation For The Civilian Employed Population 16 Years And Over;B20004 - Median Earnings In the Past 12 Months (In 2015 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) by Sex by Educational Attainment for the Population 25 Years and Over;B23006 - Educational Attainment by Employment Status for the Population 25 to 64 Years, and;B24021 - Occupation By Median Earnings In The Past 12 Months (In 2015 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) For The Full-Time, Year-Round Civilian Employed Population 16 Years And Over.

To learn more about the American Community Survey (ACS), and associated datasets visit: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs, for questions about the spatial attribution of this dataset, please reach out to us at GISHelpdesk@hud.gov. Data Dictionary: DD_ACS 5-Year Socioeconomic Estimate Data by CountyDate of Coverage: 2016-2020

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.

List of centers where homeless people are provided with hot meals, showers, medical help and a place to sleep

Daily report of how many Single Adults and Families are served

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.

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

What is the Point-In-Time Count?

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Washington State Department of Commerce require communities to conduct a one-day Point-In-Time (PIT) Count to survey individuals experiencing homelessness. PIT Counts are one source of data among many that help us understand the magnitude and characteristics of people who are homeless in our community.

The Point-In-Time (PIT) Count is a one-day snapshot that captures the characteristics and situations of people living here without a home. The PIT Count includes both sheltered individuals (temporarily living in emergency shelters or transitional housing) and unsheltered individuals (those sleeping outside or living in places that are not meant for human habitation).

The annual PIT Count happens the last Friday in January, and is carried out by volunteers who interview people and asks where they slept the night before, where their last residence was located, what may have contributed to their loss of housing, and disabilities the individual may have. It also asks how long the individual has been homeless, age and demographics, and whether the person is a veteran and/or a survivor of domestic violence.

Like all surveys, the PIT Count has limitations. Results from the Count are influenced by the weather, by availability of overflow shelter beds, by the number of volunteers, and by the level of engagement of the people we are interviewing. Comparisons from year to year should be done with those limitations in mind.

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.

Of all families with children (FWC) and adult families (AF) who applied for shelter and received application decision in the reporting month, this is the proportion who were found eligible. For families with multiple decisions within the month, only the most recent decision is factored into this rate.

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