Continued rise in homelessness in the US pushed largely by lack of inexpensive housing choices, specialists say.
The variety of individuals living in homelessness in the US has elevated by 18 p.c during the last 12 months, the US Division of Housing and City Improvement (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 line with an annual depend that was carried out on a single night time in January 2024.
The determine — which HUD mentioned was the highest-ever recorded — consists of individuals staying in emergency shelters, protected havens, transitional housing, or in unsheltered places within the US.
It doesn’t embrace these residing in sure different types of housing instability, reminiscent of individuals staying with a pal 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 methods 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 12 months, HUD discovered that homelessness had elevated by 12 p.c in 2023 in comparison with the earlier 12 months.
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 short-term housing, others have imposed harsh measures that critics say have penalised and even criminalised homelessness.
Probably the most alarming findings of Friday’s HUD report was a major improve within the variety of youngsters experiencing homelessness.
Practically 150,000 youngsters have been residing in homelessness within the US this 12 months, the division mentioned — a rise of 33 p.c in contrast with 2023.
“Between 2023 and 2024, youngsters (underneath the age of 18) have been the age group that skilled the biggest improve in homelessness,” the report discovered.
Whereas the report primarily attributed the general uptick in homelessness to an absence of inexpensive housing, HUD mentioned that different elements additionally performed a task, together with pure disasters reminiscent of 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 throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nationwide Low Earnings Housing Coalition mentioned Friday’s report underscored “the pressing want for policymakers to spend money on 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 other people with lived expertise have warned, the variety of individuals experiencing homelessness continues to extend as extra individuals battle to afford sky-high housing prices.”
