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 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.

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 Feb 2022: The December 2021 report has been updated to reflect a change in the statistics due to a revised report sent in by Dublin subsequent to our publication of the report.

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.

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

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

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).

Welcome to the survey of PHA Engagement with Homeless Households. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has contracted with Abt Associates and its subsidiary Abt SRBI to conduct this survey. The information collected will allow researchers to explore and document how Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) currently serve homeless households. Our purpose is to establish a baseline level of PHAs’ current engagement in serving homeless households and to better understand the current opportunities provided by PHAs that have an explicit preference for homeless households. Findings of this study will enable HUD to:

--identify the variety of mechanisms that PHAs employ to target homeless households for assistance;
--highlight innovative ways in which PHAs may be engaging with homeless households;highlight the broader set of community partners providing services to homeless people.

Through this study PHAs will learn from each other about different approaches to assisting homeless families. Responses to this survey will be used for research purposes only and will NOT be used for compliance monitoring. If you have questions about the survey please call 1‐866‐626‐9805 or email us at PHASURVEY@srbi.com. If you have questions about the study itself, please contact Ms. Anne Fletcher, Social Science Analyst, Office of Policy Development and Research, HUD at (202) 402‐4347 or Ms. Eliza Kean, the Abt Associates Project Director at (301) 634‐1743.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

This dataset presents the total number of distinct specialist homeless services clients. The client counts are based on the location where the client resided in the week before their first support period in the financial year. Each client contributes only once, even if they had multiple support periods during the financial year. The data spans the financial years of 2014-15 to 2018-19 and is aggregated to 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA).

The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) data accompanies the Specialist Homelessness Services Annual Report 2018-19.

For further information about this dataset, visit the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - SHSC Data Cubes User Guide.

Notes:

• Caution should be used when comparing data for 2017-18 onwards with data for 2014-15 to 2016-17 in sub-state data cubes. Data for 2011-12 to 2016-17 at the state, territory and national levels are weighted to account for agency non-response and invalid statistical linkage keys (SLK), and have been rounded to the nearest integer. Due to improvements in agency response and rates of SLK validity, data from 2017–18 are no longer weighted. The removal of weighting does not constitute a break in time series, and these data are directly comparable with weighted counts for earlier years. As the weighting method is not suitable for sub-state units, the data in the sub-state cubes are not weighted.

• Clients are considered to be homeless if they are living in any of the following circumstances: No shelter or improvised dwelling, Short-term temporary accommodation, House, townhouse or flat (couch surfing or with no tenure).

• Clients are considered to be at risk of homelessness if they are living in any of the following circumstances: Public or community housing (renter or rent free), Private or other housing (renter, rent-free or owner), Institutional settings.

  AURIN has spatially enabled the original data.

Number of adults and children experiencing literal homelessness as captured in the annual Point-in-Time count. Literal homelessness is defined as staying in emergency shelter, transitional housing for homeless persons, a place not meant for human habitation, or a motel with a voucher. The count for 2022 is based on preliminary data from Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness and is subject to change.

description: EDFacts Homeless, Neglected, or Delinquent, 2011-12 (EDFacts HND:2011-12), 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 dataset presents the number of distinct specialist homeless services clients by client type, sex and age group. The client counts are based on the location where the client resided in the week before their first support period in the financial year. Each client contributes only once, even if they had multiple support periods during the financial year. The data spans the financial years of 2014-15 to 2018-19 and is aggregated to 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA).

The Specialist Homelessness Services Collection (SHSC) data accompanies the Specialist Homelessness Services Annual Report 2018-19.

For further information about this dataset, visit the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - SHSC Data Cubes User Guide.

Notes:

• Caution should be used when comparing data for 2017-18 onwards with data for 2014-15 to 2016-17 in sub-state data cubes. Data for 2011-12 to 2016-17 at the state, territory and national levels are weighted to account for agency non-response and invalid statistical linkage keys (SLK), and have been rounded to the nearest integer. Due to improvements in agency response and rates of SLK validity, data from 2017–18 are no longer weighted. The removal of weighting does not constitute a break in time series, and these data are directly comparable with weighted counts for earlier years. As the weighting method is not suitable for sub-state units, the data in the sub-state cubes are not weighted.

• Clients are considered to be homeless if they are living in any of the following circumstances: No shelter or improvised dwelling, Short-term temporary accommodation, House, townhouse or flat (couch surfing or with no tenure).

• Clients are considered to be at risk of homelessness if they are living in any of the following circumstances: Public or community housing (renter or rent free), Private or other housing (renter, rent-free or owner), Institutional settings.

  AURIN has spatially enabled the original data and has set suppressed values (".") as Null.