The number of homeless people in the United States has grown 12% in the last year, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Friday, as rising rents and disappearing pandemic aid combined to have dramatic effects on thousands of Americans.
Some 653,000 people were experiencing homelessness when HUD took its snapshot of homelessness in America in January—marking the highest number of people experiencing homelessness since the department began counting the population using the yearly point-in-time survey in 2007.
About 20 of every 10,000 people living in the U.S. were homeless on a single night in 2023, with people of color making up a disproportionate number, HUD said.
More specifically, homelessness increased about 16% among families with children and more than 7% among veterans.
The number of homeless Asian and Asian Americans jumped 40% in the past year, marking the largest percentage increase.
Hispanic or Latino people saw the largest numerical increase, as more than 39,000 more Hispanic or Latino people said they were experiencing homelessness in 2023 than in 2022.
“This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement Friday.
The number of homeless people has increased in recent years, a discouraging trend after years of declines.
The recent rise in homelessness is partly driven by the disappearance of pandemic-era aid programs, including a federal moratorium on evictions that ended in 2021, the report said.
From 2010—three years after the agency began tracking homelessness—until 2017, the number of homeless people in the US. dropped from 637,00 to 554,000.
The numbers rose to about 580,000 in 2020 and then stayed consistent over the next few years until this year when officials saw a big spike.
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