"Without significant and sustained federal investments to make housing affordable for people with the lowest incomes, the affordable housing and homelessness crises in this country will only continue to worsen," warned one campaigner.
The number of people in
shelters, temporary housing, and unsheltered settings across the United States
set a new record this year, "largely due to a sharp rise in the number of
people who became homeless for the first time."
That's a key takeaway from an annual report released Friday by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
On a single night in January 2023, "roughly 653,100 people—or about 20 of every 10,000 people in the United States—were experiencing homelessness," with about 60% in shelters and the remaining 40% unsheltered, according to HUD. That's a 12% increase from 2022 and the highest number of unhoused people since reporting began in 2007.
