According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's latest report on homelessness in the United States, 653,104 Americans were homeless in 2023. Last year, levels of homelessness climbed for the sixth year. While in 2017 and 2018, growth was slow, homelessness increased more in 2019 and 2020 and finally skyrocketed in 2023 by growing 12 percent compared to the year prior and even climbing 10 percent above the 2007-2022 average. As Covid-era protection programs expired and the cost-of-living crisis hit the country, homelessness numbers rose. At the same time, Covid restrictions on shelter capacity ended, leading to more homeless individuals living in shelters once again. During Covid-19, most of the increase in homeless populations had come from unhoused individuals. In 2023, sheltered populations rose by almost 14 percent, while unhoused populations rose by less than 10 percent. However, the share of the sheltered homeless population held steady at around 60-61 percent since the pandemic started.
Despite previous increases, the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January when the count is carried out had always stayed below Great Recession levels, which had been highest in 2007 when the data was first reported. The 2023 number now retired that record, surpassing it by 1 percent.
