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Homelessness up 18 percent in US in last year amid cost of living crisis

Friday, 27 December 2024 11:13 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 28 December 2024 3:26 AM ]

A homeless man sleeps under an American flag blanket on a park bench in New York City in this file photo.

Official data in the US shows the number of homeless people has surged by 18 percent to hit a record over the past year.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said in a new report on Friday that more than 771,000 people were experiencing homelessness across the country.

These include the people living on the streets and those staying in emergency shelters and transitional housing, according to an annual count that was carried out on a single night in January 2024.

The figure does not include those Americans staying with a friend or family member because they lack shelter of their own.

“Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits,” the department’s report reads.

The report cites the worsening affordable housing crisis coupled with rising inflation and stagnating wages.

The US has been struggling with a homelessness crisis for years. This has led to tent cities and encampments in many cities nationwide.

African Americans account for 37 percent of all people suffering from homelessness in the United States.

Evictions nationwide have steadily increased since the fall of 2021, when the national eviction moratorium ended.

In late 2022, emergency rental assistance from the federal government also stopped.

From 2020 to 2022, the number of people who became homeless for the first time increased by 30%, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data.

600,000 homeless persons in the United States despite being the world's largest economy

There are an estimated 600,000 homeless persons in the United States of America, a staggering number for the world

Experts say poverty, mental health and housing crisis have flamed the fire of homelessness in the US.

Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the US National Low Income Housing Coalition, said those renters who once had been “stably housed “have been forced to re-enter "a brutal housing market, with skyrocketing rents and high inflation.

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