Washington, D.C. – Across the United States, 553,742 persons experienced homelessness on a single night in 2017, an increase of .7 percent since last year, according to 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
There is a great deal of variation in the data in different parts of the country, however, and many places continue to see reductions in homelessness. Thirty (30) states and the District of Columbia reported decreases in homelessness between 2016 and 2017. Challenges in some major metropolitan areas, however, have had a major impact on the national trend lines.
For example, the City and County of Los Angeles reported a nearly 26 percent increase in overall homelessness since 2016, primarily among those persons found in unsheltered locations. Meanwhile, New York City reported a 4.1 increase, principally among families in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Excluding these two areas, the estimated number of Veterans experiencing homeless in other parts of the nation decreased 3.1 percent since 2016.
The total number of persons experiencing homelessness on a single night last January is 553,742, an increase of 0.7 percent from January 2016 largely attributed to the jump in unsheltered homelessness in larger cities in the West Coast
HUD’s 2017 homeless estimate points to a significant increase in the number of reported persons experiencing unsheltered homelessness, particularly in California where there is a significant lack of affordable housing. Last January, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County counted a total of 55,188 individuals living in sheltered and unsheltered settings, an increase of nearly 26 percent over January 2016.
The severe lack of affordable housing in California is also affecting the level of Veteran homelessness. In Los Angeles County alone, Veteran homelessness increased 64 percent since January 2016 which largely accounts for the 1.5 percent increase of Veteran homelessness nationwide.
There were 58,000 families with children experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2017, a decline of 5.4 percent from the year before and a 27 percent reduction since 2010.
Local communities reported a total of 40,056 Veterans experiencing homelessness in January of 2017, an increase of 1.5 percent since 2016, primarily in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.
Long-term or chronic homelessness among individuals with disabilities declined 18 percent since 2010.
