Homelessness in the United States

Homelessness is the condition of people lacking "a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" as defined by The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Point-in-time single night counts prepared by shelter providers differ greatly from federal government accounts. In 2014, approximately 1.5 million sheltered homeless people were counted,[1] a number that does not include at least half of the sheltered people refusing to be interviewed. In major cities, the ratio of sheltered people to unsheltered people ranges from 1:4 in Los Angeles[2] to 12:1 in New York.[3] These ratios further signify serious discrepancies between homeless populations and federal statistics.

The federal government statistics are prepared by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report. as of 2018, HUD alleges there are around 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night,[4] or 0.17% of the population. Annual federal HUD reports contradict private state and local reports where homelessness is shown to have increased each year since 2014 in most major US cities, with 40 percent increases noted in 2017[5] and in 2019.[6] Based on these figures, a realistic estimate of all unhoused people - in shelters, cars, tents, on couches, or other public places - would indicate more than 4 million people in the United States are currently homeless.

Historically, homelessness emerged as a national issue in the 1870s.[7] Early homeless people lived in emerging urban cities, such as New York City. Into the 20th century, the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a devastating epidemic of unemployment, poverty, hunger, and homelessness. In the 1960s, the deinstitutionalization of patients from state psychiatric hospitals increased the numbers of homeless people. Since 2008, a failing economy and resistance to social stabilization programs have caused the conditions for today's ongoing crisis.