The National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) added new data on its website regarding the state of homelessness in America. Nationwide, 553,742 people experienced homelessness on a given night in January 2017, representing a 0.7% increase from 2016 but a 14.4% decline from 2007. Of the homeless population in 2017, approximately 35% (192,875 people) were unsheltered, meaning they lived in a place not meant for human habitation, such as the street, a park, or an abandoned building. The others (360,867 people) lived in some form of shelter or transitional housing. NAEH’s website provides data on homelessness trends since 2007 for the U.S., each state, and the District of Columbia.
The website also provides the number of poor households in the U.S. with incomes below poverty who are severely housing cost-burdened (their housing costs consume more than 50% of their income), or who are doubled-up with family or friends: two indicators of risk for homelessness. More than 6.9 million poor households were severely cost-burdened in 2016, representing a 3.1% decline from 2015 but a 20.8% increase from 2007. More than 4.6 million people in poor households were doubled-up in 2016, representing a 5.7% decline from 2015 but a 30.0% increase from 2007.
State of Homelessness in America is available at: https://bit.ly/2yaGEgz