By Maria Ortiz
Dec 27, 2024, 18:18 PM EST
The amount of homeless people counted throughout the country in a single night in January 2024 increased by 18% compared to the previous year’s count, reaching more than 770,000 people, the Biden administration reported on Friday.
The “Point-In-Time” count report released by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows that the increase in homelessness was due to the affordable housing crisis, inflation, stagnant wages and natural disasters that hit communities across the country.
HUD stated in the report that in communities that had received asylum seekers and migrants or that had suffered a natural disaster higher homeless data were recorded.
“Migration had a notable impact on the percentage of homeless families, which was close to 39% in its last record,” the federal agency said in a statement.
Homeless families doubled in the 13 communities that reported having received more immigrants, while in another 373 the increase in homeless families did not reach 8%.
The Department of Housing clarified that these figures were compiled before President Joe Biden’s Administration took immigration measures to reduce the arrival of immigrants and before rental prices stabilized.
“This count was carried out after significant increases in rental prices as a result of the pandemic and nearly decades of housing underbuilding. Since January, rents have remained stable or even decreased in many cities,” according to the statement.
However, Yes, the number of homeless people among military veterans has decreasedwhich decreased almost 8% in the last year to 32,882, “the lowest number ever recorded.”
And it is because the Department launched a program to help veterans find affordable housing with which they claim to have permanently housed 47,925 homeless veterans in 2024.
“No American should face homelessness,” stated HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman.
“While this data is almost a year old and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness. “We know what works and our success in reducing homeless veterans by 55.2% since 2010 proves it,” he concluded.
On Friday, the Biden administration announced a series of measures to address homelessness nationwide, including updating regulations for Accelerate the Reuse of Surplus Federal Property for Affordable Housing and homeless services.
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