The number of people living in homelessness in the United States has increased by 18 percent over the last year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said in a new report.
Data released on Friday showed that more than 771,000 people were experiencing homelessness across the country, according to an annual count that was carried out on a single night in January 2024, reports Al Jazeera.
The figure — which HUD said was the highest-ever recorded — includes people staying in emergency shelters, safe havens, transitional housing, or in unsheltered locations in the US.
It does not include those living in certain other forms of housing instability, such as people staying with a friend or family member because they lack shelter of their own.
“Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits,” the department’s report (PDF) reads.
Homelessness has been rising in the US for years, driven largely by a lack of affordable housing options in cities across the country. In figures released last year, HUD found that homelessness had increased by 12 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Sprawling tent cities and encampments also have sprung up in many US cities amid the increased homelessness rates.
While some cities have bolstered programmes aimed at getting people off the streets and into shelters or temporary housing, others have imposed harsh measures that critics say have penalised or even criminalised homelessness.
One of the most alarming findings of Friday’s HUD report was a significant increase in the number of children experiencing homelessness.
Nearly 150,000 children were living in homelessness in the US this year, the department said — an increase of 33 percent compared with 2023.
“Between 2023 and 2024, children (under the age of 18) were the age group that experienced the largest increase in homelessness,” the report found.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
