This webpage covers the homeless population of the United States and its impact on the poverty and welfare landscape.
Homeless Population
There were 653,104 homeless people in America on a single night in January 2023, as reported by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) [i].
HUD measures homelessness by choosing a day in January each year and performing a thorough count of homeless people. The count is done in conjunction with cities, counties, homeless shelters, and charities and is called the Point In Time Count (PIT).
There were 494,048 adults over the age of twenty-four, 47,436 young adults aged nineteen to twenty-four, and 111,620 homeless children on that January night. 61% were in emergency shelters or transitional housing, and 39% were in unsheltered locations (on the streets).
Homelessness is a small part of the poverty landscape
There were 38 million Americans in poverty, and 1.5% were homeless.
Homelessness is a small part of the poverty and welfare landscape in America. However, it can be a very visible problem and is always heart-wrenching. Homelessness is often cited as the reason to expand welfare programs, but usually, that expansion has little impact on the homeless – See the Welfare Ethics Page.
Housing First
HUD has adopted a Housing First policy to govern its approach to homelessness. Many experts feel treatment first is a better approach. Here is a summary of Housing First and its pros and cons.
Chronic Homelessness
Chronic homelessness is defined by HUD as follows [ii]: “Chronically Homeless Individual refers to an individual with a disability who has been continuously homeless for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time homeless on those occasions is at least 12 months.”
There were 143,105 chronically homeless people in January 2023 in the PIT Count, representing about 22% of the homeless population. 35% of the chronically homeless were in an emergency shelter or transitional housing, and 65% were in unsheltered locations (on the streets) [iii].
The homeless population compared to shelter beds
The graph below shows the homeless population and the number of beds available for them in emergency shelters and transitional housing [iv]. Beds available for the homeless have lagged behind the homeless population by about 200,000 beds over the past ten years.
HUD spending on homelessness
The graph below shows the total HUD grants [v] made each year to address homelessness. Hud made $4.2 billion in homeless grants in 2022, equating to $6,431 per homeless person.
Mental Illness and Chronic Substance Abuse
In the PIT count in January 2023, there were 137,036 individuals with a mental illness and 108,035 experiencing chronic substance abuse [vi]. This totals 19% and 17% of the homeless population. The categories are not mutually exclusive. In addition, 74,436 individuals were victims of domestic violence. Chronic homelessness totaled 22% of the homeless population in the PIT count (as shown above) and includes many individuals with mental illnesses and substance abuse conditions.
Homelessness is Solvable
There is a way to solve homelessness. A non-profit group called Community Solutions is leading the way [x]. As of February 2024, one hundred and five communities are participating in the Community Solutions program called “Built For Zero.” See the map below – for more information, go to their interactive map here.
As described by Community Solutions, [xi]: Ending homelessness begins by knowing each person experiencing homelessness by name and designing racially equitable systems that account for every single person.
Built for Zero
To be Built For Zero, a community generally has to first understand, by person, who is homeless and why. Through a shared database, they must track who is coming in and going out of homelessness in their area daily. Then, they need to assign the case to a community team member. That person is responsible for accessing all the public and non-profit communities’ resources to solve the problem. There must be a plan for every homeless person that is tailored to the homeless person. This structure represents a dramatic change to the job responsibilities of government and non-profit workers. It also means a different way to measure success. Instead of work time measures, the community must switch to measuring success through the decline of the homeless population.
Functional Zero
As shown in the map below, fourteen communities in the nation have ended homelessness in their communities, including chronic homelessness. They have achieved functional zero. For more information, go to the interactive map here.
The difficult problem of chronic homelessness
A good source of information on the problems of mental illness as it relates to homelessness is the book Street Crazy by Dr. Stephen B. Seager. Dr. Seager spent seven years in the psychiatric emergency room at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. His account is riveting and hard-hitting. In one case, a man known only as John Doe was schizophrenic and had been admitted 84 times over four years. He responded well to antipsychotic medications, but upon getting his freedom back to live on the streets (usually court-ordered), he would eventually quit taking his medication and ultimately end up back at the hospital. Eventually, he died on the streets.
In another case, the hospital staff argued for a woman to be admitted to permanent care based on her mental illness, but the court disagreed. She had already cut off each of her fingers, toes, ears, and part of her nose in separate incidents over several years. But the court allowed her to go back to the streets because that was her desire and because she wasn’t a threat to anyone but herself. She eventually cut off her eyelids and her tongue.
Loved ones and authorities can’t force the mentally ill to follow a treatment plan or take their medicines. It is a very difficult situation. It is a difficult balance to weigh individual freedom and the plight of the homeless and mentally ill. Dr. Seager believes that the laws of the land must be changed.
Much the same is true with substance abuse. As with mental illness, loved ones and authorities have little impact until a person chooses to change. Unfortunately, that choice sometimes never comes. Addiction can be too powerful for individuals to overcome on their own. Sometimes, they spend their life on the streets until their addiction, disease, or violence kills them.
Freedom is the cornerstone of American culture. But when it is played out on the streets with mental illness and substance abuse, we get chronic homelessness. Perhaps it is time to tie freedom with personal responsibility. When that responsibility can’t be met, we need more intervention and be committed to paying for it. We have to ask ourselves how many times is it acceptable to arrive at a hospital for treatment only to repeat the cycle.
The federal government’s plan to end homelessness
In 2010, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) adopted a plan to end homelessness in America. The Plan was entitled “Opening Doors” [vii]. USICH is an agency within the federal executive branch and comprises the heads of 19 federal agencies, including HUD, The Department of Agriculture, and Health and Human Services. It was formed for the sole purpose of bringing the agencies together to fight homelessness. Opening Doors “serves as a roadmap for joint action by the 19 USICH member agencies and local and state partners in the public and private sectors.”
The Goals of the 2010 Plan:
- End chronic homelessness in 5 years (2015)
- Prevent and end homelessness among Veterans in 5 years (2015)
- Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in 10 years (2020)
- Set a path to ending all types of homelessness
In June 2015, the goal of ending chronic homelessness was revised to 2017. All other goals remained the same.
USICH says, “The Plan presents strategies building upon the lesson that mainstream housing, health, education, and human service programs must be fully engaged and coordinated to prevent and end homelessness.”
USICH is unique to the federal welfare system in several ways:
- It seeks to coordinate all federal government agencies into a single plan. While the 19 agencies maintain their formal independence, they strive to find common ground and means.
- It established meaningful and measurable goals. Most welfare programs measure their success by benefits paid. Few agencies or programs have measurable goals to reduce the level of those in poverty (in this case, homelessness).
- It strives to coordinate functions and monies directly with cities, counties, churches, and charities.
- It strives to find best practices wherever and however they are found and expand those practices.
One of the principal methods to fight chronic homelessness is to move people into Medicaid and use benefits available under that program to address the disabilities impacting the individual and their homelessness. One of the principal methods to fight veteran homelessness is to coordinate actions within the Veteran Affairs Administration, which has various programs to address disabilities and other needs.
Here is the USICH definition of an end to homelessness:
“An end to homelessness does not mean that no one will ever experience a housing crisis again. Changing economic realities, the unpredictability of life, and unsafe or unwelcoming family environments may create situations where individuals, families, or youth could experience, re-experience, or be at risk of homelessness. An end to homelessness means that every community will have a systematic response in place that ensures homelessness is prevented whenever possible or is otherwise a rare, brief, and non-recurring experience.”
The graph to the right shows progress toward eliminating chronic homelessness and veteran homelessness. There was a significant drop in chronic and veteran homelessness from 2014 – 2016. But since then, Veteran homelessness has declined slightly, and chronic homelessness has increased [viii]. There is still a long way to go to achieve their elimination. Currently, the agency is pursuing a plan entitled “All-In” to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025.
Even as defined above, eliminating homelessness will most likely require more than the combined coordination of agencies and plans as designed in “Opening Doors.”. It will most likely require new laws, more institutional care, and a more concerted effort to intercede in people’s lives, particularly in the cases of mental illness and substance abuse.
A short history of the federal government and homelessness
The following history is adapted from the USICH historical overview [ix]. The federal government formed its first program to target homelessness under the Reagan Administration. The McKinney Act was passed in 1987 with the goal of forming an interagency council to provide assistance to the homeless. It was named after Stewart McKinney, a congressman with HIV who died from pneumonia contracted from sleeping out on grates one evening to highlight the plight of the homeless. The McKinney Act established the Interagency Council on the Homeless (which ultimately became USICH) as an “independent establishment” within the executive branch.
In March 1992, USICH released “Outcasts on Main Street,” a report outlining a national strategy to eradicate homelessness among people with severe mental illness. The report presented more than 50 steps federal agencies would take to substantially improve the system of care and housing options for individuals with mental illness experiencing homelessness.
Congress did not support the reauthorization of the Council in 1993. As a result, the Clinton administration decided to continue the work of USICH by establishing it as a working group of the White House Domestic Policy Council. USICH received no direct funding from Congress from 1994-2000.
The revitalization of USICH as an independent agency began with enacting the FY 2001 VA- HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill. In October 2003, USICH announced the selection of eleven community partnerships from more than 100 applications to participate in the $55 million HUD-HHS-VA Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness.
USICH’s authorizing statute was amended in May 2009 by the HEARTH Act to include several new responsibilities, including preparing and submitting a federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. On June 22, 2010, USICH and its member agencies released Opening Doors, the nation’s first-ever comprehensive strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness among all populations.
Footnotes
[i] The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Office of Community Planning and Development. The 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress – Part 1: Point-In-Time Estimates of Homelessness. [Internet]. Retrieved February 24, 2024. Available here.
[ii] Ibid. Page 4.
[iii] Ibid. Page 77.
[iv] Ibid. Page 91.
[v] U.S.GovernmentSpending.com. [Internet]. Total per year for Homeless Assistance Grants. Retrieved January 20, 2023. Available Here.
[vi] HUD 2022 Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Programs Homeless Populations and Subpopulations. [Internet]. Retrieved February 1, 2023. Available here.
[vii] The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. Opening Doors. Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness as Amended in 2015. June 2015. Available Here.
[viii] See footnote 1. Pages 67 and 77.
[ix] The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Historical Overview. [Internet]. Retrieved April 18, 2020. Available Here.
[x] Community Solutions Website. [Internet}. Retrieved February 1, 2023. Available here.
[xi] Ibid. Built for Zero website page. [Internet}. Retrieved February 1, 2023. Available here.