United States: In the U.S., the number of homeless people increased by 18% from January 2023 to January 2024, reaching about almost about 770,000 people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This rise is a very serious concern, and the HUD’s 2024 report which shows the problem growing across the country.
Adrianne Todman, HUD’s head, stated that no American should face homelessness and promised that the government will continue to work for affordable, safe housing for everyone.
The most recent tally was taken nearly a year ago in a January 2024 point-in-time count completed by the HUD that includes people in shelters, temporary housing and those experiencing homelessness on the streets. This means that, the data that has been used does not show the current position.
But the totals reflect increase in asylum seekers, Todman added in a statement, and does not consider an executive action made earlier this year to protect the border of United States.
As reported by the HealthDay, She said the rise was attributed to a number of factors, including national disasters in 2023 such as the Maui fire and an increasing frequency of severe storms as well as extreme weather conditions.
In addition, the recent HUD report also revealed a sharp increase in family homelessness which has risen to more than a double of size in the affected receiving communities including Denver, New York City and Chicago. Halt a minute and see the statistics for this group, they are up by nearly 40%.
There had been a marked increase as per the one-night count in January 2024 that highlighted homeless children at 150000 at its peak an increase of 33% over the year before.
In sending the news to the White House and asking to avoid releasing it to the press, Todman, the HUD agency head pointed to some good news too. Veterans did much better than in the previous years, and there remains a steady reduction in homelessness among the former service people.
Based on the report, the count of homeless veterans in the United States reduced by 8% in 2024, and reached 32,882. A total of just the homeless veterans was 22,314 in 2010 and when using only them, the figure reduced to 13,851, a 11% drop in 2024.
Several large cities tried to fix deteriorated systems or expand housing stock and there were fewer homeless people in the region. In the same period, the number of homeless persons decreased by 16 percentage in Dallas City.
California, the state where many counties have expanded homeless housing capacity, saw unsheltered homelessness decline 5% since 2023, and Orange County posted the largest decline in that timeframe with 15%.
Homelessness in itself is also a risk factor for the transmission of infectious diseases like viral hepatitis, tuberculosis (TB) and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reports the Centers for Disease.