Homelessness in America: Statistics, Resources and Organizations

When considering the issue of homelessness, it’s crucial to remember that homeless people are our brothers and sisters, our cousins, our aunts and uncles, our parents, and our children.

Homelessness in America can’t be explained in facts and figures because numbers tend to depersonalize a very human catastrophe occurring in slow motion in cities and towns across our country. Yet statistics do tell part of the story:

• Every night, more than 300,000 men, women and children in the U.S. stay in homeless shelters.
• An additional 200,000 or so spend each night unsheltered, whether on the street or in other locations (subway trains, vehicles, etc.).
• Families with children represent 30% of the U.S. homeless population, and an additional 6% are adults under the age of 25.
• About 20% of homeless people in the U.S. are considered “chronically homeless,” 66% of whom have no shelter at all.

The toll that homelessness takes on individuals, families, communities and society touches every aspect of our lives.

• Death rates for homeless people in 20 urban areas of the U.S. jumped by 77% between 2016 and 2020, The Guardian Among the reasons for the increase are violence, untreated diseases and more deadly illegal drugs such as fentanyl.
• The continuing rise in the cost of housing makes it more difficult for communities to create permanent solutions to homelessness. For example, a $1.2 billion project to build income-restricted supportive housing in Los Angeles estimates the average cost of building each home will be nearly $600,000.
• California, which has the highest number of homeless people in the country, will spend nearly $6 billion through 2025 to expand its Medi-Cal program in an effort to prevent homeless people from relying on expensive emergency room visits for medical care, as well as to keep them out of jails, nursing homes and mental health crisis centers.

At the forefront of efforts to help unhoused people break the cycle of homelessness are teams of social workers who work directly with homeless individuals and families to see to their immediate needs, as well as with businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to address the underlying causes of homelessness.

Youth Homelessness Statistics

Statistics on the number of homeless youth in the U.S. fail to tell the whole story because so many young people don’t fit the strict definition of “homeless” that many government agencies adhere to. For example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines homeless people as those who are living in shelters, in transitional housing or outdoors. This definition fails to account for the many children and young adults who go from place to place, “couch surfing” with friends and relatives or paying for short stays at motels.

The National Center for Homeless Education offers a more complete picture of youth homelessness in America in its 2021 report, which analyzes data collected by the U.S. Department of Education on public school students who lack a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act mandates that homeless children have an equal right to free and appropriate education. These are among the report’s findings:

• During the 2019-2020 school year, nearly 1.3 million public school children — 2.5% of all enrolled students — experienced homelessness.
• The number of students experiencing homelessness dropped by 8% from the 2018-2019 school year and by 15% between 2017-2018 and 2019-2020.
• Even with recent decreases in student homelessness, the average annual increase in homeless students between the 2004-2005 and 2019-2020 school years was 5%.

Homelessness among youths and young adults is much higher in certain demographic groups, as reported by the National Network for Youth:

• Young Black people have an 83% higher risk of becoming homeless than their white counterparts.
• Young Hispanic people have a 33% greater chance of experiencing homelessness than their white counterparts.
• LGBTQ youths are more than twice as likely to become homeless than other young people.
• Young people who haven’t completed high school are 3.5 times more likely to experience homelessness than their peers who have graduated.

Why Youth Homelessness Is Increasing

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, schools lost track of homeless youths. As schools reopened, they found that the number of students experiencing homelessness had gone up. Educators fear that student homelessness will soar as a result of the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium.

The Center for Public Integrity examines the long-term impact that homelessness has on young people:

• Children who have been homeless are less likely to graduate from high school than those who haven’t been homeless, and they’re also more likely to experience homelessness again in their lives.
• When schools closed during the pandemic, homeless students lost the last source of stability in their lives, which added to their feelings of stress and anxiety.

Advocates for homeless children and young adults see some progress in combating the problem as a result of measures taken to alleviate COVID-19-related financial difficulties for individuals, families and businesses. For example, people who work with homeless young people and families have called for direct cash payments, similar to the payments sent to individuals and families during the pandemic, as a way to help homeless people resettle into fixed and regular housing.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has called on government agencies to shift their funding priorities to emphasize preventing youth homelessness in America. The ABA stresses the need to reduce homelessness among LGBTQ youths, youths of color and Indigenous youths, all of whom are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Young people are especially vulnerable to becoming homeless when they are leaving foster care, the juvenile justice system or the mental health system.

Resources on Youth Homelessness in America

• U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s “Homelessness Resources: Youth”: This page covers topics including the trauma of homelessness for young people, the risk factors that contribute to youth homelessness, and the connection between mental and substance use problems and homelessness.
• Youth.gov, “Homelessness and Runaway”: This resource examines why young people run away from home or become homeless and provides links to agencies, publications and data sources related to youth homelessness.
• SchoolHouse Connection: This organization presents resources on youth homelessness in five categories: early childhood, pre-K through 12, higher education, housing and unaccompanied youth.

Social Work and Homelessness

Social workers play a lead role in assisting unhoused individuals, helping them secure a place to stay both immediately and in the long term. They also help people address risk factors that can contribute to homelessness. While the direct causes of homelessness are poverty, unemployment and lack of affordable housing, many other social factors play an important but indirect role in people’s inability to find fixed and reliable housing.

• Untreated mental and substance use disorders can cause serious functional impairment that interferes with or limits a person’s ability to participate in everyday activities. Many homeless people have coexisting mental and substance use disorders.
• Experiencing trauma and violence often leads to behavioral health problems and chronic physical health conditions, especially when the traumatic event occurred in childhood. This can lead to higher instances of substance use, mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, and risky behaviors.
• Survivors of domestic violence are at higher risk of becoming homeless in part because of a lack of communication between homeless-service providers and the agencies that respond to domestic violence incidents about available shelters for these individuals.

Other risk factors for homelessness include being involved in the justice system, falling seriously ill, divorce, the death of a partner, and having physical or mental disabilities. Social workers combat homelessness by helping individuals find emergency shelters, transitional housing that provides a temporary residence for up to two years and permanent supportive housing that gives them a chance to receive treatment for chronic health issues. Some supportive housing is drug- and alcohol-free, while other programs have no such prerequisites.

How Social Workers Contribute to Ending Homelessness in America

In service to their clients, social workers strive to address the underlying social, economic and health issues that can lead to homelessness. Preventing homelessness is far more effective and less expensive than getting a homeless person into fixed and regular housing.

Factors that contribute to homelessness include food insecurity, poor access to health care, lack of support for veterans and unemployment. Finding a permanent solution to the growing crisis of homelessness in America requires a six-pronged approach:

1. Rapid rehousing
2. Permanent supportive housing
3. Shared housing
4. Educating youth
5. Creating career opportunities
6. Providing quality health care for all

Reflecting this approach, social workers support homeless and at-risk individuals in a variety of ways:

Family Violence and Prevention Services

The Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sponsors the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program, which offers shelter, safety planning, crisis counseling, information and referral, legal advocacy, and other support services for survivors of domestic violence and families at risk of domestic violence. The program also funds State and Territorial Domestic Violence Coalitions, which coordinate programs at the local level.

Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs

The Basic Center program sponsored by HHS offers emergency shelter and other support for runaway and homeless youths with the goal of reuniting them with their families when possible and locating alternative housing when necessary. The program is available to people who are under 22 years old and homeless, have run away, or are thinking of running away. Other programs for young people offered by the Family and Youth Services Bureau include street outreach, transitional living, maternity group homes for pregnant youths, a national runaway safeline, and a runaway and homeless youth training and technical assistance center.

Head Start

The HHS’ Head Start and Early Head Start programs provide services designed for young children who experience homelessness. Among the tools available to social workers and others supporting homeless families is a series of questions that help determine a family’s homeless situation. The questions include whether the family is sharing housing or living in a temporary situation (hotel, motel, camping, etc.). The tool helps indicate an emergency housing situation and the adequacy of the family’s current living situation.

Child Care Development Fund

The Child Care Development Fund is an HHS program that makes grants available for states, territories and tribes to use for education and training programs geared to low-income parents. The program requires that lead agencies prioritize child care assistance to vulnerable families, which include families with very low incomes and children experiencing homelessness.

Social Services Block Grants

Social Services Block Grants (SSBGs) are intended to fund social services for vulnerable adults, children and families. The HHS program gives states broad discretion to decide how to spend the SSBG funds they receive within the program’s five broad goals:

1. Encourage economic self-support
2. Promote long-term self-sufficiency
3. Protect children and adults from neglect, abuse and exploitation
4. Promote community-based care, home-based care and other alternatives as a way to prevent or reduce reliance on institutional care
5. Secure necessary institutional care, when other forms of care are not suitable

Community Services Block Grants

Similar to SSBGs, Community Services Block Grants (CSBGs) are designed to reduce poverty and invigorate low-income communities by promoting self-sufficiency for families and individuals. Obtaining adequate housing is one of the goals of the CSBG program, along with finding meaningful long-term employment, adequate education, health and nutrition services, and encouraging participation in community affairs.