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Homelessness in the United States by state

The official homelessness statistics by state, 2019
The statewide homelessness population ratios as compared with the national U.S. homelessness ratio (0.17% or 171 persons per 100,000) in 2019.[1][2] Of the 9 states (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia that have homelessness ratios higher than the United States as a whole, only Vermont did not have median gross rents higher than the United States as a whole in the 2015–2019 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

Homelessness in the United States has differing rates of prevalence by state. The total number of homeless people in the United States fluctuates and constantly changes, hence a comprehensive figure encompassing the entire nation is not issued, since counts from independent shelter providers and statistics managed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development vary greatly. Federal HUD counts hover annually at around 500,000 people. Point-in-time counts are also vague measures of homeless populations and are not a precise and definitive indicator for the total number of cases, which may differ in both directions up or down. The most recent figure for 2019, was 567,715 individuals nationally that experienced homelessness at a point in time during this period.[3]

Homeless people may use shelters, or may sleep in cars, tents, on couches, or in other public places. Separate counts of sheltered people and unsheltered people are critical in understanding the homeless population. Each state has different laws, social services and medical policies, and other conditions which influence the number of homeless persons, and what services are available to homeless people in each state.

A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the country are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing due largely to housing shortages, with West Coast cities including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs, like Arkansas, West Virginia, and Detroit, even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.[4][5][6][7]

The state by state counts of people listed below are derived from under-reported federal HUD statistics.

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling which permitted cities to ban homeless camps, thus making it possible to jail people for sleeping in areas such as public parks.[8][9]

  1. ^ "Homelessness Statistics by State – United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)". United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  2. ^ Annual Population Estimates Program Estimates (Report). Population Estimates Program. United States Census Bureau. 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  3. ^ FAQs – National Alliance to End Homelessness
  4. ^ Colburn, Gregg; Aldern, Clayton Page (2022). Homelessness is a housing problem: how structural factors explain U.S. patterns. Oakland, California. ISBN 978-0-520-38376-0. OCLC 1267404765.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Warth, Gary (July 11, 2022). "Cause of homelessness? It's not drugs or mental illness, researchers say". Los Angeles Times. In their University of California Press book "Homelessness is a Housing Problem," authors Clayton Page Aldern and Gregg Colburn looked at various contributing issues of homelessness, including mental illness and addiction, and the per capita rate of homelessness around the country. By looking at the rate of homeless per 1,000 people, they found communities with the highest housing costs had some of the highest rates of homelessness, something that might be overlooked when looking at just the overall raw number of homeless people.
  6. ^ Greenstone, Scott (March 22, 2022). "Is homelessness a housing problem? Two Seattle experts make their case in new book". The Seattle Times. But when Colburn compared cities with high and low numbers of homelessness based on poverty, drug use and mental health treatment factors, there was a clear answer that housing plays an outsize role in homelessness — and most academics have agreed on it for a while. It just hasn't been embraced by the general public yet.
  7. ^ Demsas, Jerusalem (December 12, 2022). "The Obvious Answer to Homelessness - And why everyone's ignoring it". The Atlantic. In their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, the University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn and the data scientist Clayton Page Aldern demonstrate that "the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty." Rather, the most relevant factors in the homelessness crisis are rent prices and vacancy rates. Colburn and Aldern note that some urban areas with very high rates of poverty (Detroit, Miami-Dade County, Philadelphia) have among the lowest homelessness rates in the country, and some places with relatively low poverty rates (Santa Clara County, San Francisco, Boston) have relatively high rates of homelessness. The same pattern holds for unemployment rates: "Homelessness is abundant," the authors write, "only in areas with robust labor markets and low rates of unemployment—booming coastal cities."
  8. ^ Groppe, Maureen (June 28, 2024). "In major decision, Supreme Court allows cities to ban homeless camps". USA Today. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
  9. ^ Whitehurst, Lindsay (June 28, 2024). "Divided Supreme Court rules in major homelessness case that outdoor sleeping bans are OK". Associated Press News. Retrieved June 28, 2024.

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