Homelessness Rose by 18 Percent from 2023-2024

On December 27th, 2024, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a report detailing the results of the 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. The report paints a dire picture of homelessness in the United States, revealing that between 2023 and 2024, homelessness in the nation surged by 18 percent. This increase means that 771,480 people, or about 23 of every 10,000 Americans, were living without a permanent address. The data for the report is derived from the 2024 PIT Count, an annual tally of unsheltered individuals that takes place on a single night in January. The methodology of the PIT Count has long been a subject of debate, with critics asserting it undercounts and excludes people temporarily staying with friends or family. While it may only provide a snapshot of homelessness, the PIT Count provides critical insight into homelessness trends and serves as a primary data source for informing federal budget allocations.

As homelessness increased in the past year, families and children saw some of the most significant spikes. Family homelessness rose by 39 percent from the previous year, amounting to about 259,000 people in families experiencing homelessness. This is a highwater mark in family homelessness since data collection started in 2007. Similarly, child homelessness increased by 33 percent, with nearly 150,000 children living unsheltered. Demographic data collected also reveals significant racial disparities in homelessness. Despite comprising only 12 percent of the population, Black individuals accounted for 32 percent of people experiencing homelessness in the US.

Systemic racism has historically contributed to the overrepresentation of Black Americans in the homeless population. This large disparity noted in the 2024 PIT Count reflects the pervasive power of racial oppression and the socioeconomic barriers that persist today. 

Why is Homelessness Increasing?

Although there is no one cause for the increase in homelessness from 2023 to 2024, several key factors, including a lack of affordable housing and the end of COVID-era assistance programs, contributed largely. Since 2021, median rent has skyrocketed 20 percent. While the price of housing continued to rise, wages did not increase proportionally. More employed people are experiencing homelessness, with areas like Southeast Texas, Rhode Island, and northeast Tennessee seeing homelessness among people with jobs increase by 20 percent and higher. The ending of COVID-era funding, including the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, stimulus payments, and temporary eviction moratorium, has also put further strain on renters. As more people face eviction, homelessness services around the nation are expected to be overwhelmed. 

 HUD has also pointed to the influx of undocumented migrants in thirteen communities and the Maui fire as contributors to increased homelessness. Since the count was conducted, the Biden-Harris administration has imposed stricter border policies, reducing unauthorized border crossings by more than 60 percent since January 2024. Still, many sources have attempted to attribute the increase in homelessness solely to immigration despite established facts proving otherwise. This perspective is often used to politicize the issue of homelessness without accounting for the long-standing socioeconomic barriers that affect the majority of people experiencing homelessness in America. The Maui fire is also an example of an outlier event that occurred during the count. However, as climate change progresses, natural disasters will happen more frequently and displace more people from their homes. Climate change also exacerbates existing inequities and threatens the progress of historically underserved communities. Amidst the recent wildfires in Los Angeles, the neighborhood of Altadena, a historically Black neighborhood where 81 percent of Black households owned homes, has been devastated, with more than 2,700 structures destroyed. Residents who have spent generations building their wealth despite socioeconomic inequality and racism fear they will not be able to recover.

In conjunction with all of these factors, recent policies threaten to exacerbate homelessness further. In June 2024, the Supreme Court ruled in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case that cities could ban people from sleeping in public spaces. Since the ruling, over 100 jurisdictions have taken steps to ban unhoused people from sleeping outside. Experts and activists assert that criminalizing homelessness will not solve the problem and will make services more difficult to access. When people cannot access services and utilize community resources, the chances of escaping homelessness diminish greatly. Turning a blind eye and scapegoating migrants or communities of color will not erase homelessness. While it may be much more challenging, we must ask ourselves difficult questions as a country and address the root causes of homelessness. Recognizing the roles socioeconomic inequality and systemic racism play in homelessness and working to dismantle these oppressive systems is the first step of many.

Looking to the Future

In response to the affordable housing crisis and rising homelessness, President Donald Trump has proposed mass deportations of undocumented people to free up housing. Economists have widely discredited this plan, maintaining that deporting migrants would not solve the issue and cause larger economic problems. Rather than spending our efforts removing people from the community, our time would be better spent creating more affordable housing and strengthening support services. While creating affordable housing is easier said than done, we can look to examples of successful interventions for guidance.

Compared to other populations experiencing homelessness, veteran homelessness has consistently decreased in the past ten years. HUD reports that from 2023 to 2024, veteran homelessness decreased by 8 percent and dropped to the lowest number on record. The initiative to end veteran homelessness has utilized several key methods to achieve these results, including the Housing-First approach and focusing on connecting veterans to permanent supportive housing. Ultimately, the distinction between veterans and the rest of the unhoused population is a difference in perception and priority. Policymakers prioritized combatting veteran homelessness and funding support services, which led to a significant decrease in unhoused veterans. This is a great feat for veterans, who, for many years, were forgotten and excluded from society by the country they served. We must now learn from these successes and apply them to the remainder of people experiencing homelessness. Transformation starts with altering public perception and conveying that people experiencing homelessness are valuable members of society who deserve to have their basic human needs met.

At Housing Up, we provide safe and affordable permanent housing to formerly homeless and at-risk families in DC. While the results from the 2024 PIT count are disheartening, it only reinforces the critical need for the work we do. As we transition into 2025, it is clear that change needs to occur on an institutional level. Homelessness as an issue is not the result of individual moral shortcomings.

While each person experiencing homelessness is unique, the circumstances that have led them there often are not. Instead of buying into the false ideals of American exceptionalism that claim anyone can “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and climb the ladder of wealth if they try hard enough, we must acknowledge that homelessness is not an individual failure but the direct result of a society that refuses to fulfill its people’s basic needs.

We will continue to advocate for and amplify the voices of the families and children we serve at Housing Up. Despite the challenges ahead, we will not give up until we end family homelessness in Washington, DC.