Homelessness in US skyrockets to 18% under Biden-Harris administration

The US saw an 18.1 percent increase in homelessness in 2024 compared to 2023, according to a new report released on Friday. This jump was largely driven by a lack of affordable housing, multiple natural disasters that wiped large chunks of towns off the map, and the continuing Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis which has led to a housing crunch.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducted the annual count on a single night in January 2024, and found that over 77,000 people were experiencing homelessness. HUD, which released the report on Friday, said "This report reflects data collected a year ago and likely does not represent current circumstances, given changed policies and conditions."

The report noted that the 771,480 homeless people recorded when the count was taken was the "highest ever recorded." Driving this increase was a "worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism" which have "stretched homelessness service systems to their limits."

These stretched systems were "exacerbated" by "additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the US, and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic." The report noted that between 2020 and 2024, there was a 32.9 percent increase in all people experiencing homelessness. "Sheltered people" increased by 40.3 percent and "unsheltered people" increased by 21.3 percent. 

The demographic that saw the largest jump was families with children, which saw a 39 percent increase between 2023 and 2024. There was a 33 percent increase in children increasing homelessness on a single night. The only demographic to see a drop in homelessness were veterans, which saw an eight percent drop between 2023 and 2024. 

The report also noted that one in three people experiencing homelessness, or 152,585 people, reported experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness, which is the "highest number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness counted in the PIT."

The report highlighted three states, New York, Hawaii, and Illinois, that experienced the largest change in people experiencing homelessness. In New York, which saw a 53 percent increase, this was driven by a backlog of evictions following the pandemic, increased rents, and the influx of illegal immigrants, among other factors.

In Hawaii, which saw an 87 percent increase in total homelessness, this was due to the devastating Maui wildfires that took place in August 2023 that saw thousands of people displaced from their homes. This added a total of over 5,000 people to Maui’s shelter point-in-time count. In Illinois, there was a 116 percent increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness. 91 percent of this increase was in Chicago, which said that the influx was due to "new arrivals" which includes "migrant and asylum-seeking families, including those bused or flown to Chicago from other states."

HUD Agency Head, The Honorable Adrianne Todman, said, "No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve. While this data is nearly a year old, and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness. We know what works and our success in reducing veteran homelessness by 55.2% since 2010 shows that."