Continued rise in homelessness in the US pushed largely by lack of inexpensive housing choices, consultants say.
The variety of individuals living in homelessness in the US has elevated by 18 % over the past yr, the US Division of Housing and City Growth (HUD) mentioned in a brand new report.
Data released on Friday confirmed that greater than 771,000 individuals have been experiencing homelessness throughout the nation, in keeping with an annual rely that was carried out on a single evening in January 2024.
The determine — which HUD mentioned was the highest-ever recorded — contains individuals staying in emergency shelters, protected havens, transitional housing, or in unsheltered places within the US.
It doesn’t embrace these dwelling in sure different types of housing instability, similar to individuals staying with a buddy or member of the family as a result of they lack shelter of their very own.
“Our worsening nationwide inexpensive housing disaster, rising inflation, stagnating wages amongst middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting results of systemic racism have stretched homelessness companies techniques to their limits,” the division’s report (PDF) reads.
Homelessness has been rising within the US for years, pushed largely by a lack of affordable housing choices in cities throughout the nation. In figures launched final yr, HUD discovered that homelessness had elevated by 12 % in 2023 in comparison with the earlier yr.
Sprawling tent cities and encampments even have sprung up in lots of US cities amid the elevated homelessness charges.
Whereas some cities have bolstered programmes geared toward getting individuals off the streets and into shelters or momentary housing, others have imposed harsh measures that critics say have penalised and even criminalised homelessness.
One of the vital alarming findings of Friday’s HUD report was a big enhance within the variety of kids experiencing homelessness.
Almost 150,000 kids have been dwelling in homelessness within the US this yr, the division mentioned — a rise of 33 % in contrast with 2023.
“Between 2023 and 2024, kids (beneath the age of 18) have been the age group that skilled the biggest enhance in homelessness,” the report discovered.
Whereas the report primarily attributed the general uptick in homelessness to a scarcity of inexpensive housing, HUD mentioned that different components additionally performed a job, together with pure disasters similar to a Maui wildfire that displaced individuals from their houses.
An increase in migrants staying in shelters in main US cities, together with New York, Denver, and Chicago, additionally contributed to the rise, as did the expiration of advantages and protective rules meant to assist individuals maintain onto their housing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nationwide Low Earnings Housing Coalition mentioned Friday’s report underscored “the pressing want for policymakers to put money into confirmed options to the inexpensive housing & homelessness disaster”.
“Elevated homelessness is the tragic, but predictable, consequence of underinvesting within the assets and protections that assist individuals discover and preserve protected, inexpensive housing,” Renee Willis, the group’s incoming interim CEO, mentioned in a statement.
“As advocates, researchers, and folks with lived expertise have warned, the variety of individuals experiencing homelessness continues to extend as extra individuals battle to afford sky-high housing prices.”
