By Daniel Soucy and Andrew Hall
In late December, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the 2024 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) Part 1. It highlights the findings from the nation’s only comprehensive count of people experiencing homelessness, taken on a single night in January 2024. The biggest takeaways include:
#1. Homelessness continues to increase, but one subpopulation demonstrates that ending homelessness remains possible.
Homelessness increased for most major subgroups. However, veterans continue to experience declines in homelessness. Research indicates that robust and coordinated investments in affordable housing and services drove these reductions. Similar investments from Congress can reduce homelessness for other groups as well.
#2. The homeless response system is not funded to meet households’ growing needs.
The most recent annual data indicates that more people entered homelessness for the first time. These entries will continue to outpace exits to permanent housing unless the homeless response system is funded appropriately. This is necessary context for understanding why homelessness continued to rise in the 2024 Point-in-Time Count.
#3. Despite a lack of resources, the response system is connecting more people experiencing homelessness with housing and shelter.
More people are experiencing homelessness due to inadequate incomes and a lack of temporary shelter, affordable housing, and healthcare. Nevertheless, the response system is working to ensure that more people can sleep inside. In 2024, the percent of people experiencing homelessness who were unsheltered was nearly 4 percent less than it was in 2023.
#4. More disabled people experienced homelessness for extended periods of time.
People who have experienced homelessness for at least a year — or multiple times totaling a year, while disabled — are considered chronically homeless. For years, chronic homelessness declined due to a well-supported and sustained effort to direct housing and supportive services to this population. Large increases, especially in unsheltered homelessness, are occurring because of insufficient housing and services for disabled individuals.
#5. The number of children experiencing homelessness increased nearly 33 percent.
Compared with 2023, 36,000 more children did not have a permanent place to live in 2024. Of all age groups, children are at the highest risk of eviction. They are likely to live with families who simply can not afford a place to live. This can lead to poor performance in school and homelessness across the child’s life.
Older adults are also experiencing homelessness at high rates due to the high costs of living and inadequate increases in social security. This is especially notable and concerning due to the prominent health risks associated with homelessness.
#6. Certain groups of color continue to be overrepresented among the unsheltered homeless population.
While there can be significant variations within these broad racial categories, it is clear that unsheltered homelessness remains more likely for certain racial groups. It is also important to note that in 2024, Black people remained overrepresented among the overall homeless population despite lower rates of unsheltered homelessness.
#7. Gender-expansive people remain overrepresented among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
HUD amended its gender categories to ensure that more people were represented in the 2024 Point-in-Time Count. Collectively, these gender-expansive groups have higher rates of unsheltered homelessness than cisgender people. Homelessness is also increasing quickly among this group and declines in the rate of unsheltered homelessness are not keeping pace with their cisgender counterparts. The new gender categories also show that people who identify as gender questioning, or who have a culturally-specific gender identity, have the highest unsheltered rates of any recorded demographic group, exceeding 75 percent.
More research needs to be done to understand these differences fully. Still, existing studies make clear that discrimination and violence have traditionally led to housing insecurity and homelessness for many of these groups.
