Homelessness in the United States by state information
Official homelessness statistics by state, 2019Statewide homelessness population ratios as compared with the national U.S. homelessness ratio (0.17% or 171 persons per 100,000) in 2019.[1][2] Of the 9 states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia that have homelessness ratios higher than the United States as a whole, only Vermont did not also have median gross rents higher than the United States as a whole in the 2015–2019 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.
Homelessness in the United States has occurred to varying degrees across the country. The total number of homeless people in the United States fluctuates and constantly changes hence a comprehensive figure encompassing the entire nation is not issued since counts from independent shelter providers and statistics managed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development vary greatly. Federal HUD counts hover annually at around 500,000 people. Point-in-time counts are also vague measures of homeless populations and are not a precise and definitive indicator for the total number of cases, which may differ in both directions up or down. The most recent figure for the year 2019 that was given was at 567,715 individuals across the country that have experienced homelessness at a point in time during this period.[3]
Homeless people may use shelters, or may sleep in cars, tents, on couches, or in other public places. Separate counts of sheltered people and unsheltered people are critical in understanding the homeless population. Each state has different laws, social services and medical policies, and other conditions which influence the number of homeless persons, and what services are available to homeless people in each state.
A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the country are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing, with West Coast cities including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs like Arkansas, West Virginia, and Detroit, even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.[4][5][6][7]
The state by state counts of people listed below are derived from under-reported federal HUD statistics.
^"Homelessness Statistics by State – United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)". United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
^Annual Population Estimates Program Estimates (Report). Population Estimates Program. United States Census Bureau. 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
^FAQs – National Alliance to End Homelessness
^Colburn, Gregg; Aldern, Clayton Page (2022). Homelessness is a housing problem: how structural factors explain U.S. patterns. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-38376-0. OCLC 1267404765.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Warth, Gary (July 11, 2022). "Cause of homelessness? It's not drugs or mental illness, researchers say". Los Angeles Times. In their University of California Press book "Homelessness is a Housing Problem," authors Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn looked at various contributing issues of homelessness, including mental illness and addiction, and the per capita rate of homelessness around the country. By looking at the rate of homeless per 1,000 people, they found communities with the highest housing costs had some of the highest rates of homelessness, something that might be overlooked when looking at just the overall raw number of homeless people.
^Greenstone, Scott (March 22, 2022). "Is homelessness a housing problem? Two Seattle experts make their case in new book". The Seattle Times. But when Colburn compared cities with high and low numbers of homelessness based on poverty, drug use and mental health treatment factors, there was a clear answer that housing plays an outsize role in homelessness — and most academics have agreed on it for a while. It just hasn't been embraced by the general public yet.
^Demsas, Jerusalem (December 12, 2022). "The Obvious Answer to Homelessness - And why everyone's ignoring it". The Atlantic. In their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, the University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn and the data scientist Clayton Page Aldern demonstrate that "the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty." Rather, the most relevant factors in the homelessness crisis are rent prices and vacancy rates. Colburn and Aldern note that some urban areas with very high rates of poverty (Detroit, Miami-Dade County, Philadelphia) have among the lowest homelessness rates in the country, and some places with relatively low poverty rates (Santa Clara County, San Francisco, Boston) have relatively high rates of homelessness. The same pattern holds for unemployment rates: "Homelessness is abundant," the authors write, "only in areas with robust labor markets and low rates of unemployment—booming coastal cities."
and 24 Related for: Homelessness in the United States by state information
and Risk of Homelessness among U.S. Veterans: A Multisite Investigation" (PDF). National Center on Homelessness among Veterans. UnitedStates Department...
their lifetime. The experience of homelessness is a gendered one, with pathways into homelessness differing on the basis of gender. One of the primary causes...
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing...
Research shows that a disproportionate number of homeless youth intheUnitedStates identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or LGBT. Researchers...
people intheUnitedStates have a pet. Homelessness appears to be largely concentrated within urban areas. Central cities hold 71% of thehomeless population...
TheUnitedStates Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) is an independent federal agency within the U.S. executive branch that leads the implementation...
than half a million people are homeless. The geographic patterns of homelessnessintheUnitedStates are explained bythe high cost and low availability...
throughout UnitedStates history. Eligibility to vote intheUnitedStates is governed bytheUnitedStates Constitution and by federal and state laws. Several...
students in public schools in the UnitedStates experienced homelessness. According to the National Center for Homeless Education, there were more than...
successfully moved out of homelessness had simply been given bus tickets to be moved out of San Francisco. Homelessnessinthe San Francisco Bay Area Gee...
According to theUnitedStates Interagency Council on Homelessness, as of January 2017, there are an estimated 32,190 homeless individuals in Florida. Of...
IntheUnitedStates, state governments are institutional units exercising functions of government at a level below that of the federal government. Each...
TheUnitedStates does not have an official language at the federal level, but the most commonly used language is English (specifically, American English)...
million homeless people as of 2024. Statistics on homelessness (and other social issues) in dependent territories are often integrated into those for the nation-states...
million people are homeless on any given night intheUnitedStates, and a third of them are unsheltered. The growing issue of homelessness has been met with...
become homelessin their lifetime. Domestic violence is the direct cause of homelessness for over half of all homeless women intheUnitedStates. According...
increases inhomeless people to the housing shortage, with the result that homelessnessin California overall has increased by 15% from 2015 to 2017. In September...
Islam is the third largest religion intheUnitedStates (1%), behind Christianity (63%) and Judaism (2%), and equaling the shares of Buddhism and Hinduism...
a stateinthe Western UnitedStates, lying on the American Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican...
The term "UnitedStates," when used inthe geographical sense, refers to the contiguous UnitedStates (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including...
Global Information
