The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released its 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates, an annual snapshot of the number of individuals in shelters, temporary housing, and unsheltered settings.
The report found more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2024, an 18% increase from 2023. This report reflects data collected a year ago and likely does not represent current circumstances, given changed policies, and conditions.
Through targeted funding and interventions that utilize evidence-based practices, homelessness among veterans dropped to the lowest number on record. There was a nearly 8% decrease–from 35,574 in 2023 to 32,882 in 2024–in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness. Among unsheltered veterans, the number dropped nearly 11%–from 15,507 in 2023 to 13,851 in 2024. This year, HUD has helped connect nearly 90,000 veteran households to stable, rental homes through the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has permanently housed 47,925 veterans experiencing homelessness in FY2024—marking the largest number of veterans housed in a single year since FY 2019.
“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” said HUD Agency Head, The Honorable Adrianne Todman. “While this data is nearly a year old, and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness. We know what works and our success in reducing veteran homelessness by 55.2% since 2010 shows that.”
Some communities reported data to HUD that indicated that the rise in overall homelessness was a result of their work to shelter a rising number of asylum seekers coming into their communities. Importantly, this reporting was collected prior to the Biden Administration taking executive action to secure our border, after Congressional Republicans blocked a bipartisan Senate bill that would have provided needed resources and authorities to help reduce irregular migration. Since then, unlawful crossings at the border have dropped by more than 60%. Encounters are at their lowest since July 2020. As a result, migrant arrivals to communities across the country have dropped significantly. In Chicago, for example, the migrant shelter census is down more than 60% and in Denver, the shelter census is down nearly 100%. This fall, both cities announced an end to their migrant shelter systems.
Migration had a particularly notable impact on family homelessness, which rose 39% from 2023-2024. In the 13 communities that reported being affected by migration, family homelessness more than doubled. Whereas in the remaining 373 communities, the rise in families experiencing homelessness was less than 8%. Rents have also stabilized significantly since January 2024. Since then, HUD has added 435,000 new rental units in the first three quarters of 2024; that’s more than 120,000 new units each quarter. The PIT Count was conducted at the tail of significant increases in rental costs, as a result of the pandemic and nearly decades of under-building of housing. Rents are flat or even down in many cities since January.
The Maui fire, in addition to other natural disasters, had an impact on the increase in homelessness. In Hawaii, more than 5,200 people were sleeping in disaster emergency shelters on the night of the PIT count due to the Maui fire. HUD continues to work diligently with the state of Hawaii and Maui County through funding and technical assistance to support long-term recovery from the fire. Over the last year, since the PIT Count was conducted, rental costs have stabilized, with rents down in some cities.
Multiple communities saw a marked decrease in people experiencing homelessness, including:
- Dallas: In 2021, Dallas transformed its homelessness response system with a focus on connecting individuals and families experiencing homelessness to housing. To do this they created the Street to Home Initiative–a $30 million public-private initiative which strives to cut unsheltered homelessness in half by 2026. The initiative led to a 16% decrease in homelessness between 2022-2024.
- Los Angeles: Struggling with a high-cost rental market, Los Angeles increased the availability of housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, combining Federal, City, and County funds. This led to a decline in homelessness for the first time in seven years. Unsheltered homelessness throughout all of Los Angeles County declined by 5% since 2023.
- Chester County, Pennsylvania: Chester County has taken several steps to address homelessness that have led to a nearly 60% decrease in homelessness since 2019. These efforts include eviction prevention case resolution, the expansion of housing first training programs, an increase in affordable housing groups, and fair housing education and prevention efforts specifically for migrant workers.
Click here for more on HUD’s efforts to reduce homelessness nationwide.
