U.S. Homeless Count Surges 12% to Highest-Recorded LevelThe U.S. count of homeless people surged to the highest level on record, reaching more than 653,000 people early this year as Covid-19 pandemic-aid spending faded, new federal data show.
The increase reflects a collision of factors: rising housing costs; limited affordable housing units; the opioid epidemic; and the expired pandemic-era aid that had helped keep people in their homes, federal officials said Friday. A surge of migrants into shelters in places such as New York City, Massachusetts and Chicago also contributed to the challenge.
The data released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development show a 12% gain since last year, marking both the biggest increase and highest tally since the U.S. first published comparable data for 2007.
The Wall Street Journal in August reported that homeless counts surged a record amount this year, by roughly 11% based on then-available preliminary data from around the U.S.
Before this year, excluding counts hampered by the pandemic, the biggest increase was 2.7% in 2019.
“A challenging rental market with historically low vacancy rates, expiring pandemic era housing programs, and an increase in people experiencing homelessness for the first time contributed to the increase in homelessness,” said Marion McFadden, HUD’s principal deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development.
Many advocates for the homeless feared numbers would surge during the pandemic; counts instead were relatively flat. Temporary eviction moratoriums as Covid spread also helped keep vulnerable people housed, for a time.
HUD collects data from one-day counts that are taken around the U.S. early each year to estimate how many people are in shelters and on the street. The tallies are widely considered to be undercounts reflecting only a snapshot in time, but the numbers are still tracked closely to spot trends and marshal resources.
Nearly 400 homeless-aid organizations conduct the annual homeless counts, covering anything from a single large city to an entire small state.
HUD officials said the government provided resources such as grants to aid groups and housing vouchers since the homeless counts were performed. HUD also said new programs have boosted the number of homeless people who got into permanent housing in the past two years.
“The problem is that for every person who exits homelessness, another becomes homeless,” said Jeff Olivet, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
The new HUD data showed several worsening trends, including a 12% jump in individuals who are chronically homeless, which includes people with disabilities who have been unhoused for at least one year or periodically over three years. Two-thirds of them were unsheltered in this year’s count, a record....................
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