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 ** 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.

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 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.

INTRODUCTION: As California’s homeless population continues to grow at an alarming rate, large metropolitan regions like the San Francisco Bay Area face unique challenges in coordinating efforts to track and improve homelessness. As an interconnected region of nine counties with diverse community needs, identifying homeless population trends across San Francisco Bay Area counties can help direct efforts more effectively throughout the region, and inform initiatives to improve homelessness at the city, county, and metropolitan level. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this research is to compare the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) counts of homelessness across San Francisco Bay Area counties between the years 2018-2022. The secondary objective of this research is to compare the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) counts of homelessness among different age groups in each of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties between the years 2018-2022. METHODS: Two datasets were used to conduct research. The first dataset (Dataset 1) contains Point-in-Time (PIT) homeless counts published by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dataset 1 was cleaned using Microsoft Excel and uploaded to Tableau Desktop Public Edition 2022.4.1 as a CSV file. The second dataset (Dataset 2) was published by Data SF and contains shapefiles of geographic boundaries of San Francisco Bay Area counties. Both datasets were joined in Tableau Desktop Public Edition 2022.4 and all data analysis was conducted using Tableau visualizations in the form of bar charts, highlight tables, and maps. RESULTS: Alameda, San Francisco, and Santa Clara counties consistently reported the highest annual count of people experiencing homelessness across all 5 years between 2018-2022. Alameda, Napa, and San Mateo counties showed the largest increase in homelessness between 2018 and 2022. Alameda County showed a significant increase in homeless individuals under the age of 18. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this research reveal both stark and fluctuating differences in homeless counts among San Francisco Bay Area Counties over time, suggesting that a regional approach that focuses on collaboration across counties and coordination of services could prove beneficial for improving homelessness throughout the region. Results suggest that more immediate efforts to improve homelessness should focus on the counties of Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Mateo. Changes in homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020-2022 point to an urgent need to support Contra Costa County.

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 Point-in-Time (PIT) data collected in Cambridge between 2012 and 2025. The PIT count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that communities receiving funding through the Continuum of Care (CoC) Program conduct an annual count of homeless persons on a single night in the last 10 days of January, and these data contribute to national estimates of homelessness reported in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to the U.S. Congress. This dataset is comprised of data submitted to, and stored in, HUD’s Homelessness Data Exchange (HDX).

This dataset includes basic counts and demographic information of persons experiencing homelessness on each PIT date from 2012-2025. The dataset contains three rows for each year, including one row for each housing type: Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing, or Unsheltered. The dataset also includes housing inventory counts of the number of shelter and transitional housing units available on each of the PIT count dates.

Information about persons staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing units is exported from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), which is the primary database for recording client-level service records. Information about persons in unsheltered situations is compiled by first conducting an overnight street count of persons observed sleeping outdoors on the PIT night to establish the total number of unsheltered persons. Demographic information for unsheltered persons is then extrapolated by utilizing assessment data collected by street outreach workers during the 7 days following the PIT count.

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.

"Ratio of Homeless Population to General Population in major US Cities in 2011. *This represents a list of large U.S. cities for which DHS was able to confirm a recent estimate of the unsheltered population. A 2011 result is available for Seattle, WA, Miami, FL, and Boston, MA.. 2011 results are not yet available for the other cities, and their 2009 data are displayed in this chart. General population figures are 2010 estimates in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, and 2009 estimates elsewhere."

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 dataset contains information on room acquisition, occupancy, and trailer distribution made to and for the homeless population in California during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's definition, homelessness includes individuals and families who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. A homeless count provides a "snapshot in time" to quantify the size of the homeless population at a specific point during the year. Regardless of how successful outreach efforts are, an undercount of people experiencing homelessness is possible. Counts includes persons experiencing unsheltered and sheltered homelessness. Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count occurred in the nights of February 22, 23 and 24, 2022. Glendale's count occurred in the morning and evening of February 25, 2022. Long Beach's count occurred in the early morning of February 24, 2022. Pasadena's count occurred in the evening of February 22, 2022 and morning of February 23, 2022. Data not available for Los Angeles City neighborhoods and unincorporated Los Angeles County; LAHSA does not recommend aggregating census tract-level data to calculate numbers for other geographic levels.Housing affordability is a major concern for many Los Angeles County residents. Housing burden can increase the risk for homelessness. Individuals experiencing homelessness experience disproportionately higher rates of certain health conditions, such as tuberculosis, HIV infection, alcohol and drug abuse, and mental illness. Barriers to accessing care and limited access to resources contribute greatly to these observed disparities.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.

Review of Economics and Statistics: Forthcoming.

In 2023, the around 11.1 percent of the population was living below the national poverty line in the United States. Poverty in the United StatesAs shown in the statistic above, the poverty rate among all people living in the United States has shifted within the last 15 years. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines poverty as follows: “Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society.” The poverty rate in the United States varies widely across different ethnic groups. American Indians and Alaska Natives are the ethnic group with the most people living in poverty in 2022, with about 25 percent of the population earning an income below the poverty line. In comparison to that, only 8.6 percent of the White (non-Hispanic) population and the Asian population were living below the poverty line in 2022. Children are one of the most poverty endangered population groups in the U.S. between 1990 and 2022. Child poverty peaked in 1993 with 22.7 percent of children living in poverty in that year in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the child poverty rate in the United States was increasing every year; however,this rate was down to 15 percent in 2022. The number of people living in poverty in the U.S. varies from state to state. Compared to California, where about 4.44 million people were living in poverty in 2022, the state of Minnesota had about 429,000 people living in poverty.

Interview guide used for members of the social surroundings of homeless pregnant women or homeless women in the postpartum period.

The index is constructed using socioeconomic and demographic, exposure, health, and housing indicators and is intended to serve as a planning tool for health and climate adaptation. Steps for calculating the index can be found in in the "An Assessment of San Francisco’s Vulnerability to Flooding & Extreme Storms" located at https://sfclimatehealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/FloodVulnerabilityReport_v5.pdf.pdfData Dictionary: (see attachment here also: https://data.sfgov.org/Health-and-Social-Services/San-Francisco-Flood-Health-Vulnerability/cne3-h93g)

Field Name Data Type Definition Notes (optional)

Census Blockgroup Text San Francisco Census Block Groups

Children Numeric Percentage of residents under 18 years old. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

Chidlren_wNULLvalues Numeric Percentage of residents under 18 years old. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

Elderly Numeric Percentage of residents aged 65 and older. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

Elderly_wNULLvalues Numeric Percentage of residents aged 65 and older. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

NonWhite Numeric Percentage of residents that do not identify as white (not Hispanic or Latino). American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

NonWhite_wNULLvalues Numeric Percentage of residents that do not identify as white (not Hispanic or Latino). American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

Poverty Numeric Percentage of all individuals below 200% of the poverty level. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

Poverty_wNULLvalues Numeric Percentage of all individuals below 200% of the poverty level. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

Education Numeric Percent of individuals over 25 with at least a high school degree. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

Education_wNULLvalues Numeric Percent of individuals over 25 with at least a high school degree. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

English Numeric Percentage of households with no one age 14 and over who speaks English only or speaks English "very well". American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

English_wNULLvalues Numeric Percentage of households with no one age 14 and over who speaks English only or speaks English "very well". American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

Elevation Numeric Minimum elevation in feet. United States Geologic Survey 2011.

SeaLevelRise Numeric Percent of land area in the 100-year flood plain with 36-inches of sea level rise. San Francisco Sea Level Rise Committee, AECOM 77inch flood inundation layer, 2014.

Precipitation Numeric Percent of land area with over 6-inches of projected precipitation-related flood inundation during an 100-year storm. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, AECOM, 2015.

Diabetes Numeric Age-adjusted hospitalization rate due to diabetes; adults 18+. California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, 2004-2015.

MentalHealth Numeric Age-adjusted hospitalization rate due to schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, 2004-2015.

Asthma Numeric Age-adjusted hospitalization rate due to asthma; adults 18+. California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, 2004 - 2015.

Disability Numeric Percentage of total civilian noninstitutionalized population with a disability. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014.

Disability_wNULLvalues

Percentage of total civilian noninstitutionalized population with a disability. American Community Survey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

HousingQuality Numeric Annual housing violations, per 1000 residents. San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco Department of Building Inspections, San Francisco Fire Department, 2010 - 2012.

Homeless Numeric Homeless population, per 1000 residents. San Francisco Homeless Count 2015.

LivAlone Numeric Households with a householder living alone. American Community Surevey 2009 - 2014.

LivAlone_wNULLvalues Numeric Households with a householder living alone. American Community Surevey 2009 - 2014. Because the American Community Survey uses survey estimates, all data is attached to a margin of error. When the coefficient of variation is over .3, the SFDPH considers this data unstable and gives it a NULL value. However, because principal component analysis and the final development of the flood health index could not use NULL values, SFDPH used this unstable data for these limited purposes. For the purpose of transparency, SFDPH has included both datasets with NULL values and without NULL values.

FloodHealthIndex Numeric Comparative ranking of flood health vulnerability, by block group. The Flood Health Index weights the six socioeconomic and demographic indicators (Children, Elderly, NonWhite, Poverty, Education, English) as 20% of the final score, the three exposure indicators (Sea Level Rise, Precipitation, Elevation) as 40% of the final score, the four health indicators (Diabetes, MentalHealth, Asthma, Disability) as 20% of the final score, and the three housing indicators (HousingQuality, Homeless, LivAlone) as 20% of the final score. For methodology used to develop the final Flood Health Index, please read the San Francisco Flood Vulnerability Assessment Methodology Section.

FloodHealthIndex_Quintiles Numeric Comparative ranking of flood health vulnerability, by block group. The Flood Health Index weights the six socioeconomic and demographic indicators (Children, Elderly, NonWhite, Poverty, Education, English) as 20% of the final score, the three exposure indicators (Sea Level Rise, Precipitation, Elevation) as 40% of the final score, the four health indicators (Diabetes, MentalHealth, Asthma, Disability) as 20% of the final score, and the three housing indicators (HousingQuality, Homeless, LivAlone) as 20% of the final score. For methodology used to develop the final Flood Health Index, please read the San Francisco Flood