Surprising Truths About the Homelessness Crisis
Beyond the Stereotypes
When many people picture homelessness, a specific and often simplified image comes to mind. But the reality of the crisis is far more complex, structural, and surprising than these stereotypes suggest. As the United States confronts an unprecedented homelessness crisis, understanding the facts behind the headlines is more critical than ever. On a single night in January 2024, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that a record-high 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness, demanding an urgent and clear-eyed look at the truths that are often overlooked.
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1. The Crisis Is at a Record High, and Its Fastest-Growing Victims Are Not Who You Think
Homelessness has not just increased; it has reached the highest level ever recorded in the United States. The 2024 count of 771,480 people represents a staggering 18% increase in a single year. But perhaps the most shocking truth lies in who is being affected.
The largest single-year increase of any demographic group was among people in families with children, which saw a 39% rise in homelessness between the January 2023 and January 2024 counts. This trend shatters the stereotype of the single adult and points toward a growing economic fragility that is pushing entire families out of their homes.
Simultaneously, older adults are being impacted at an alarming rate. While people aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing age group experiencing homelessness, experts often look at a broader cohort to capture the full scope of the problem, as homelessness can accelerate the aging process. Today, about one in five people (20%) without a home is aged 55 or older. These figures challenge our preconceived notions and underscore that the current crisis is a story of economic instability affecting families and seniors at a scale we have not seen before.
2. It’s Not a Personal Failing—It’s a Catastrophic Housing Shortage
The conversation about homelessness is often framed around individual choices, addiction, or mental health. While these are critical factors that can make individuals more vulnerable, the primary cause of modern homelessness is a systemic failure: the severe lack of deeply affordable housing.
The data is unequivocal. For every 100 extremely low-income renter households in the U.S., there are only 34 affordable and available rental homes. This gap results in a national shortage of 7.3 million affordable and available homes for the 11 million lowest-income households. The economic mechanism is direct and measurable: according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, when a community’s median rent increases by just $100, homelessness rises by 9 percent.
The myth that people choose to move to certain cities to be homeless is also dispelled by research.
We found in the California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness that 90% of people in California who were homeless had previously been stably housed here; and, compared to the entire California population, a greater percentage were born in California.
When housing costs outpace wages so dramatically, homelessness becomes a direct and predictable outcome of a structural economic problem, not simply a collection of individual misfortunes.
3. The Biggest Federal Affordable Housing Program Often Fails the People Who Need It Most
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the largest federal program for building and preserving affordable rental homes in the country. It is our primary tool for creating supply. Yet, in a surprising and counter-intuitive twist, the apartments it builds are often too expensive for the people who need them most.
Statistics reveal that only a small share (16%) of new apartments built using LIHTC are affordable to renters with extremely low incomes. As a result, a majority (58%) of extremely low-income renters living in these developments without additional rental assistance are severely cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than half of their income on rent.
This creates a cruel irony: a household can live in a development funded by a program designed to create "affordable" housing and still be just one unexpected car repair or medical bill away from eviction. This highlights a critical flaw in a key federal program, which often fails to reach the most vulnerable populations without targeted incentives, such as a proposed "ELI Basis Boost" to make developing housing for the lowest-income households more financially feasible.
4. Criminalizing Homelessness Costs More Than Housing People
In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson gave cities more leeway to use the criminal legal system to punish people for sleeping or camping in public. This approach, however, is not just a subject of constitutional debate—it is also the most expensive and least effective way to address the issue.
Policies that criminalize homelessness are a fiscal dead end. As the American Bar Association states, criminalization "costs more money and only traps people further into poverty with fines and fees they couldn’t afford in the first place and saddling them with a criminal record and debt that make it even harder to secure housing."
It is a costly cycle where public funds are spent not on solutions, but on punitive measures that erect new barriers—criminal records and insurmountable debt—making it even harder for people to secure the very housing that would solve the problem.
5. We Have a Proven Solution That Works: "Housing First"
The evidence for its effectiveness is overwhelming. Finland has successfully reduced homelessness by adopting Housing First as a national policy. In the United States, the model was instrumental in a 55.2% decrease in veteran homelessness between 2009 and 2024, a result of targeted initiatives like the HUD-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program. Studies confirm its superiority over other approaches.
A 2021 study found that Housing First programs decreased homelessness by 88% and improved housing stability by 41%, compared to Treatment First programs.
Beyond being more humane, the Housing First model is more cost-effective. It saves taxpayer money by reducing the burden on emergency rooms, police, and other crisis response systems that are far more expensive than simply providing a home.
Conclusion: A Solvable Crisis
Homelessness is not an unsolvable mystery or an inevitable social ill. The data reveals it to be a systemic problem rooted in a housing market that has failed our most vulnerable citizens. But the evidence also shows that we have proven, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. We know what works.
The evidence is undeniable: housing is the solution to homelessness. The question we face is no longer about what works, but whether we possess the collective will to fund what does.
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