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.

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 ** 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 ******* 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 *******. 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.

Project Overview This study used a community-based participatory approach to identify and investigate the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Dublin, Ireland. The project had several stages: A systematic review on health disparities amongst people experiencing homelessness in the Republic of Ireland; Observation and interviews with homeless attendees of a community health clinic; and Interviews with community experts (CEs) conducted from September 2022 to March 2023 on ongoing work and gaps in the research/health service response. This data deposit stems from stage 3, the community expert interview aspect of this project. Stage 1 of the project has been published (Ingram et al., 2023.) and associated data are available here. De-identified field note data from stage 2 of the project are planned for sharing upon completion of analysis, in January 2024. Data and Data Collection Overview A purposive, criterion-i sampling strategy (Palinkas et al., 2015) – where selected interviewees meet a predetermined criterion of importance – was used to identify professionals working in homeless health and/or addiction services in Dublin, stratified by occupation type. Potential CEs were identified through an internet search of homeless health and addiction services in Dublin. Interviewed CEs were invited to recommend colleagues they felt would have relevant perspectives on community health needs, expanding the sample via snowball strategy. Interview questions were based on World Health Organization Community Health Needs Assessment guidelines (Rowe at al., 2001). Semi-structured interviews were conducted between September 2022 and March 2023 utilising ZOOM™, the phone, or in person according to participant preference. Carolyn Ingram, who has formal qualitative research training, served as the interviewer. CEs were presented with an information sheet and gave audio recorded, informed oral consent – considered appropriate for remote research conducted with non-vulnerable adult participants – in the full knowledge that interviews would be audio recorded, transcribed, and de-identified, as approved by the researchers’ institutional Human Research Ethics Committee (LS-E-125-Ingram-Perrotta-Exemption). Interviewees also gave permission for de-identified transcripts to be shared in a qualitative data archive. Shared Data Organization 16 de-identified transcripts from the CE interviews are being published. Three participants from the total sample (N=19) did not consent to data archival. The transcript from each interviewee is named based on the type of work the interviewee performs, with individuals in the same type of work being differentiated by numbers. The full set of professional categories is as follows: Addiction Services Government Homeless Health Services Hospital Psychotherapist Researcher Social Care Any changes or removal of words or phrases for de-identification purposes are flagged by including [brackets] and italics. The documentation files included in this data project are the consent form and the interview guide used for the study, this data narrative and an administrative README file. References Ingram C, Buggy C, Elabbasy D, Perrotta C. (2023) “Homelessness and health-related outcomes in the Republic of Ireland: a systematic review, meta-analysis and evidence map.” Journal of Public Health (Berl). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-023-01934-0 Palinkas LA, Horwitz SM, Green CA, Wisdom JP, Duan N, Hoagwood K. (2015) “Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research.” Administration and Policy in Mental Health. Sep;42(5):533–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y Rowe A, McClelland A, Billingham K, Carey L. (2001) “Community health needs assessment: an introductory guide for the family health nurse in Europe” [Internet]. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/108440

This dataset "Global hotspots of climate related disasters" shows the number of people impacted by climate-related disasters recorded in the EM-DAT database between 2000 and 2020. This dataset was used to prepare the maps and the analysis of the paper Donatti C.I., Nicholas K., Fedele G., Delforge D., Speybroeck N., Moraga P., Blatter J., Below R., Zvoleff A. 2024. Global hotspots of climate-related disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104488. This dataset includes information on people impacted by Drought, tropical cyclones, flash flood, riverine flood, forest fire, land fire, heat wave, landslide and mudslide. Data on coastal flood was not included because the database only had recordings until 2013. Data on disaster sub-types “landslides” and “mudslides” as presented in the EM-DAT were further combined as one single climate-related disaster (“land and mudslides”) for the analyses. Likewise, data on disaster sub-types “forest fire” and “land fire” were further combined as one climate-related disaster (“wildfire”). The data was accessed directly from the EM-DAT database and then summarized as show in the dataset. We used this database, downloaded on June 2nd 2021, to access data on “total affected” people and the “total deaths” per disaster event impacting a country (i.e., an entry in the EM-DAT), which were combined in this study to create the variable “total people impacted”. In the EM-DAT database, “total affected” represents the sum of people “injured,” “affected,” and “homeless” resulting from a particular event. “Injured” were considered those that have suffered from physical injuries, trauma, or an illness requiring immediate medical assistance, including people hospitalized, as a direct result of a disaster, “affected” were considered people requiring immediate assistance during an emergency and “homeless” were considered those whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged and therefore needed shelter after an event. “Total deaths” include people that have died or were considered missing, those whose whereabouts since the disaster were unknown and presumed dead based on official figures. More details can be found under “documentation, data structure and content description” at emdat.be. In the dataset, "ADM-CODE" refers to the code used to identify each administrative area, which refers to the code of FAO's Global Administrative Unit Layer, GAUL.