An annual report released by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week revealed that homelessness increased by unprecedented levels last year. According to HUD’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, over 770,000 people were homeless on a single night in January of 2024, an 18% increase from January of 2023.
As a comparison, last year’s Annual Homelessness Assessment Report revealed that homelessness had increased by 12%, and the year prior showed an increase of 0.3% from 2020 to 2022.
Homelessness shot up by a third under Biden and is now at a record high, according to new data.
The White House’s response? Blame immigrantshttps://t.co/AjnrdMD7E4 pic.twitter.com/Kjvvrc4caJ
— Stephen Semler (@stephensemler) January 1, 2025
It is possible that even this sharp increase could be an undercount. The agency itself states that not included in the report are those who are “temporarily staying with family or friends—sometimes referred to as being ‘doubled-up’ or ‘couch surfing’—even if their stay may be unstable” as well as those who are staying is housing that is “not dedicated for people experiencing homelessness.”
The Biden administration has tried to downplay this sharp increase in homelessness, around 33% since 2020. “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,” said Adrianne Todman, who currently leads HUD. “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.”
What has led to this sharp increase? The Biden administration has attempted to place much of the blame on the increase in migration. “Some communities reported data to HUD that indicated that the rise in overall homelessness was a result of their work to shelter a rising number of asylum seekers coming into their communities,” reports HUD. Indeed, cities that took in a large number of migrants experienced an increase in sheltered homelessness, including New York City and Chicago.
However, migration does not tell the full story of the massive increase in homelessness in the United States. A fuller picture includes the major factors of cost of living and the rollback of COVID-19 era social services during Biden’s presidency.
For the state of Illinois, for example, the HUD report states that “new arrivals accounted for most of Chicago’s increase in estimated homelessness,” in other areas in Illinois, the rise in homelessness was attributed to “increased shelter capacity, extreme cold that brought people into shelter, a higher cost of living combined with a rollback of pandemic-related financial supports, and a lack of affordable housing.”
According to an analysis by researcher Stephen Semler, “the combination of ending pandemic welfare assistance (which included an eviction moratorium, specific homeless prevention funding, and broader cash assistance and tax credit programs) and the lack of affordable housing was particularly devastating.” The HUD report itself contains a quote by a Continuum of Care (CoC) in the northeast, one of many regional bodies throughout the country that are part of a larger HUD initiative to assist homeless people.
“In response to COVID-19, our CoC saw an influx of rapid rehousing and prevention resources, as well as an effective statewide eviction moratorium,” reported a suburban CoC in the northeastern part of the US. “These efforts were effective in keeping households from entering into homelessness and moving households out of homelessness quickly. Since the sunsetting of these resources and the ending of the eviction moratorium, our COC has seen a large influx of new families and individuals seeking emergency shelter assistance.”
Indeed, Biden’s administration oversaw the rollback of COVID-19 social services and protections, including unemployment, additional public healthcare, and eviction moratoriums throughout the country. The administration also oversaw one of the largest increases in cost of living in recent history, which still plagues the people of the US.
