771 thousand people are homeless in America
reported by
Between 2023 and 2024, the homeless increased by 18 percent and reached about 771 thousand people. That’s about the size of the population of North Dakota. The vast majority of this increase is from people living in shelters. The most important part of this report is the 39% increase in family homelessness compared to last year. Three main factors have contributed to this increase: the lack of housing, which has caused an increase in rents and house prices, the influx of refugees, which has caused some cities to face the problem of housing shortages, and natural disasters, which have displaced people.
Estimates vary, but consulting firm Modi Analytics, estimates that America has about 2.9 million affordable homes. It’s no coincidence that many states with consistently high homelessness rates, such as California and New York, or those that saw large increases this year, such as Hawaii and Massachusetts, have the most expensive housing in the country.
A third of the people counted were chronically homeless and may suffer from drug addiction or struggle with mental illness, but most people experience homelessness depending on their financial situation and then They get out of it. More people were pushed onto the streets when pandemic-era programs that provided emergency rental assistance and prevented landlords from evicting tenants expired.
The arrival of thousands of immigrants from the southern border of America has also crowded the shelter systems in these areas. The three main cities attracting immigrants are Chicago, Denver and New York. In Chicago, immigrants live in camps inside police stations.
Denver created a bus service plan that sends people directly to their final destination. The states to which these cities belong, Illinois, Colorado, and New York, each saw significant increases in homelessness. New York City attributes approximately 88 percent of its increase in homelessness to asylum seekers housed in the city’s shelters.
The third case is the occurrence of natural disasters that can increase the rate of homelessness. In August 2023, a fire caused by broken power lines destroyed the city of Lahaina in Hawaii, killing at least 102 people. The houses were completely burnt.
Survivors lived out of shelters and hotel rooms across Maui for months, if not longer. The fires exacerbated the housing shortage on the islands, where the average home price is nearly twice the national average. A similar incident happened in 2018. The homelessness rate in Chico, California has increased significantly after the fire in the city of Paradise.
