HUD Report: Homelessness in the U.S. Continues to Decline

摘要

ON NOVEMBER 17, HUD released Part 1 of the 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR), providing Congress with local estimates of sheltered and unsheltered per-sons experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2016. According to the report, on a sin-gle night, there were 549,928 persons experienc-ing homelessness - a 14 percent decrease from 2010 and a 3 percent decrease over the past year. Most homeless persons (68 percent) were located in emergency shelters or transitional hous-ing programs, while 32 percent were unsheltered. This decline in. homeless persons was especially prevalent among families with children, veterans, and chronic or long-term homeless individuals. Since 2010, these homeless subpopulations are estimated to have declined by 23 percent, 47 percent, and 27 percent, respectively. According to a press release issued by HUD, "[t]he number of unaccompanied homeless youth and children appeared to decline in 2016 to 35,686 though HUD will launch a more robust effort to more accurately account for this important population in January of 2017." Despite the downward trend of homelessness nationally, 13 states and the District of Columbia still saw an increase in their share of homelessness between 2015 and 2016.