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.

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

Students in temporary housing (STH) are defined as students experiencing housing instability at any point, for any length of time, during the school year (from the first day of school to 7/2). This includes students and families that are "doubled up" (sharing the housing of others due to economic hardship), living in shelter (including NYC Department of Homeless Services family shelters or Human Resources Administration domestic violence shelters), or living in some other unstable, temporary housing. There were approximately 87,000 New York City district school students who resided in temporary housing in the 2020-21 school year, with about two thirds of them residing in doubled up living arrangements. Approximately 9,500 of those 87,000 students were residing in the DHS shelter system on any given night. The DOE works in close partnership with the Department of Homeless Services to provide streamlined support for students in shelter throughout each day.