Reported number of U.S. homeless peaks

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported on Friday that the homeless population across the country increased 12 percent over the past year. More than 650,000 people across the country were homeless on the same night in January 2023, according to the report. The number of homeless people is at a record high since the government began its yearly point-in-time survey in 2007.

Where did this increase come from? Data indicated the rise in the homeless population came mainly from people who became homeless for the first time in the past year, the department said. The homeless population has increased despite efforts to curb it. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it had housed more than 38,000 homeless veterans this year, but homelessness among veterans still increased by over 7 percent. Some locales, like Chattanooga, Tenn., bucked the national trend.

Dig deeper: Listen to Lillian Hamman’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about the legal challenges facing those seeking to address homelessness in Western states.