What is Homelessness | Causes of Homelessness | Who Experiences Homelessness? | Types of Homelessness | Challenges to Addressing Homelessness| Solutions | Innovations to Combat Homelessness
What is Homelessness?
In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines a person as homeless when they lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes people living in places not intended for human habitation, emergency shelters, or transitional housing.
As of 2023, homelessness in the US has seen a notable increase, with 650,000 individuals found to be experiencing homelessness at the time of HUD’s most recently published count in January 2023. This number represents a 12% increase from 2022 and is the highest figure recorded since HUD began this form of data collection.
Homelessness impacts virtually every type of community across the nation - urban, suburban, and rural. Despite common stereotypes, homelessness impacts individuals of all demographics, though certain groups, such as people of color and the LGBTQI+ community, are disproportionately affected.
Causes of Homelessness
The causes of homelessness are complex and multifaceted. At its most basic level, the United States has a systemic housing shortage relative to its population: there are not enough housing units available for everyone who needs them. This shortage makes housing more expensive, which creates affordability issues that can lead to people experiencing homelessness. Further worsening the issue is the fact that income growth has failed in recent years to keep pace with home price appreciation. According to a recent article from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, as of 2022, the current ratio of median single-family home sale price to median household income was higher than it had been at any point on record.
In addition to systemic issues of housing availability at a national level, local economic factors like poverty, unemployment, and the lack of enough deeply affordable housing options are also impactful. Factors affecting individuals and their families, such as domestic violence, mental health disorders, and substance abuse can play significant roles and can contribute to the likelihood that someone loses access to stable housing and becomes homeless.
Housing affordability, in particular, is correlated with rates of homelessness in major US cities. The 10 metro areas listed below are shown by HUD to have the highest rates of homelessness per 100,000 people. These metros also have home values which are 118% higher than those of cities with lower-than-average rates of homelessness. Rents in these cities are also nearly $700 higher than the national average.
Cities with the Highest Rates of Homelessness per 100,000 People:
San Jose, California: 636.8
San Francisco, California: 508.8
Los Angeles, California: 501.0
Sacramento, California: 415.7
Seattle, Washington: 408.9
New York, New York: 340.7
San Diego, California: 256.4
Las Vegas, Nevada: 246.2
Portland, Oregon: 240.3
Denver, Colorado: 231.6
Cities with the Lowest Rates of Homelessness per 100,000 People:
Atlanta, Georgia: 32.8
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 37.4
Chicago, Illinois: 40.7
Houston, Texas: 43.3
Cincinnati, Ohio: 47.8
Detroit, Michigan: 51.0
Richmond, Virginia: 52.6
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 53.1
Charlotte, North Carolina: 65.2
Buffalo, New York: 73.6
Source: HUD 2023 Point-in-Time count
Who Experiences Homelessness
Homelessness in the United States affects a wide range of individuals from virtually every ethnicity, race, age, and gender, reflecting a complex interplay of economic, social, and health-related factors. According to data from HUD’s 2022 Point-in-Time count, roughly 18 out of every 10,000 Americans were experiencing homelessness at the time of the count, the vast majority (72 percent) of which were individual adults. Twenty-two percent of those counted were chronically homeless individuals, 6 percent are veterans, and 5 percent are unaccompanied youth (under the age of 25).
White people represent the largest racial/ethnic group within the homeless population, with about 50 percent of all people experiencing homelessness. However, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders have the highest rate of homelessness within their ethnic group, with about 121 out of every 10,000 people. The next most overrepresented group, Black or African Americans, is still much lower, with about 48 people experiencing homelessness out of every 10,000. At the bottom end of the spectrum is Asian or Asian Americans, of whom just 4 out of every 10,000 are experiencing homelessness.
The distribution of gender within the population of people experiencing homelessness is also quite different from the population at large. Men make up close to 70 percent of the homeless population, and about 22 out of every 10,000 men in America was homeless at the time of the 2022 count. For women, that number was much lower - just 13 out of every 10,000.
Types of Homelessness
Homelessness manifests in various forms, each characterized by the duration and circumstances of the housing instability experienced. These categories help policymakers and service organizations design targeted interventions that address the specific circumstances faced by each category:
Chronic homelessness - Defined as experiencing homelessness for at least a year — or repeatedly — while struggling with a disabling condition such as a serious mental illness, substance use disorder, or physical disability. This group often requires sustained and intensive support services.
Episodic homelessness - Involves individuals who enter and exit homelessness frequently. These are often young adults, veterans, or individuals with mental health or substance abuse issues who can stabilize temporarily but lack the long-term support needed to remain housed.
Transitional homelessness - This type typically occurs once and is usually short-term. It affects individuals and families who find themselves homeless due to a sudden life event such as job loss, domestic violence, or eviction. The focus here is often on rapid re-housing interventions to quickly return individuals to permanent housing.
Hidden homelessness - Refers to people who may not be counted in formal surveys because they do not access shelter services. Instead, they may be couch surfing, living in vehicles, or staying in other precarious and inadequate conditions. This form of homelessness is particularly challenging to address due to its invisibility to service providers.
Separately, HUD also has its own classification system which is designed to capture the diverse experiences of
people experiencing housing difficulties and to help the federal agency determine who is eligible for its various government-funded assistance programs. HUD’s categories are as follows:
Category 1: Literally Homeless - This category includes individuals or families who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, meaning they might be sleeping outside, in a shelter, or in a place not meant for human habitation. This category is critical for directing emergency services and immediate housing support to those in the most acute need.
Category 2: Imminent Risk of Homelessness - Individuals or families who will imminently lose their primary nighttime residence within 14 days and have no subsequent residence identified, and lack the resources or support networks to obtain other permanent housing. This category helps in prioritizing individuals for preventative programs, which are less costly and more effective in the long run than addressing chronic homelessness.
Category 3: Homeless Under Other Federal Statutes - Youth under 25 and families with children and youth who are defined as homeless under other federal statutes, have not had a lease, ownership interest, or occupancy agreement in permanent housing during the 60 days prior to the homeless application, and have experienced persistent instability as measured by two moves or more during the preceding 60 days. This category focuses on a younger demographic that often faces different challenges and risks, such as aging out of the foster care system.
Category 4: Fleeing/Attempting to Flee Domestic Violence - People who are fleeing, or are attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or other dangerous or life-threatening conditions that relate to violence against the individual or a family member. This category acknowledges that safety and immediate shelter away from an abuser can be crucially important, necessitating specific types of housing assistance and supportive services.
Challenges to Addressing Homelessness
Addressing homelessness remains a critical issue in communities across the US, with several structural challenges hindering progress. A particularly impactful barrier is societal opposition to “Housing First” models, which prioritize the provision of permanent housing above resolving other issues like mental health, substance use, and unemployment. The effectiveness of the approach is based on the concept these issues can be more effectively addressed once housing is secured and the individual or family is stabilized. While proven by research to be effective, the model faces significant stigma, limiting more widespread adoption.
Beyond social stigma, issues like housing supply and the difficulty of tracking individuals across various systems and services further complicate efforts to address homelessness. The following points outline some of the main challenges:
Opposition to the development of new housing stock
Growing construction costs for homebuilding
Coordinating service provision across multiple entities
Tracking unhoused and/or transient individuals to provide services
Solutions
Specific efforts to combat homelessness typically focus on some combination of the following approaches:
Emergency shelter and transitional housing - Providing immediate relief to those without a home.
Permanent supportive housing - Offering long-term housing combined with supportive services to assist residents with healthcare needs, employment, and other essentials.
Prevention and rapid rehousing programs - Aiding those at risk of homelessness due to economic crises or those who need temporary assistance to regain stability
While these measures are often led by government agencies, nonprofit organizations and even some private-sector entities also play a key role in combating homelessness nationwide. Below is a short list of examples from Ivory Innovations portfolio, which includes the most promising innovations in the housing affordability sphere as recognized through the annual Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.
Innovations to Combat Homelessness
Community First! Village - Community First! Village is changing the model by which cities address chronic homelessness by shifting from a housing first approach into a community first approach.
Community Solutions: Built for Zero - Community Solutions is a non profit that leads Built for Zero, a movement of more than 90 communities working to measurably end homelessness and proving it is possible. Community Solutions is also employing new nonprofit-owned models of development and financing to help communities close the housing gap.
HomeStart - HomeStart identifies and delivers solutions to homelessness. After recognizing that nonpayment eviction was one of the largest drivers of homelessness, HomeStart developed The Renew Collaborative, a market-driven eviction prevention program that saves property owners from the expense of eviction and eliminates episodes of homelessness by way of nonpayment eviction for the working poor and households with subsidies.
Housing Connector - Housing Connector is a tech-for-good nonprofit that increases access to housing for individuals most in need. Through partnerships with housing providers and an exclusive Zillow-powered marketplace, Housing Connector streamlines and automates the housing search experience to ensure no unit sits vacant while there are families in need of a home.
Impact Justice: Homecoming Project - The Homecoming Project is a program that focuses on reducing recidivism by removing the single most significant factor, housing. Formerly incarcerated people are able to integrate more easily into the community by quick placement into stable housing right out of prison.
LA Room and Board - Los Angeles Room & Board’s mission is to end college student hunger and homelessness by partnering with university housing programs and campus adjacent property owners to reimagine the use of their vacant spaces in order to provide low & no cost transitional housing designed to equip students with the tools they need to become more self-sufficient and to ensure they complete their college degree program.
Outreach Grid - Outreach Grid (OG) is a data platform that enables agencies across a region to collaborate and coordinate on homelessness information on one platform in one language. Over the past six years, OG has created innovative, integrated tools for frontline service workers to collect data at the point of work and for community leaders to visualize their system of care from first contact to housing in real-time. During the pandemic, OG implemented the first-of-its-kind shelter bed reservations to give shelter operators the tools to manage their shelter beds and upcoming reservations in real-time, saving communities thousands of hours in coordination time.
New Story Charity - New Story is a Y Combinator-backed nonprofit that pioneers solutions to end global homelessness. New Story creates breakthrough tools, drives innovations, and identifies best practices to share with other nonprofits, governments, and businesses that are working towards building communities for the over 1.6 billion people in need of shelter.
Tiny Home Village Project - The Tiny Homes Village is a unique approach to addressing homelessness and racial equity, through a tiny home village specifically focused on supporting the local Native American community.
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