Homeless News

The number of Homeless people in America has reached a record high this year. Nearly 650,000 were homeless on a single night in January as per the analysis done by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Out of 650,000, nearly 35000 were homeless veterans making up 7% of adults experiencing homelessness. Around 20,000 veterans were sheltered in January and 15,500 remain unsheltered.

This means that at the time of analysis, 22 of every 10,000 veterans in America were homeless which concluded that veterans were more prone to homelessness than other people in the United States.

The Department of Veterans Affairs began tracking homeless veterans in 2009 when there were over 73,000 homeless veterans reported. However, data for 2020-2021 is incomplete due to data collection challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the department began measuring homelessness using its January point-in-time analysis in 2009, the number of homeless veterans went up from 2022-2023, and that too by the largest margin.

HUD analysis found that the number of veterans experiencing homelessness increased by 7% equalling to 2445 veterans.

No doubt that the increase in veteran homelessness is a cause of concern, the Department of Veteran Affairs announced having met its goal of 38,000 veterans in 2023.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said, “While we met our goals for 2023, we’re not stopping here. We’re going to keep pushing — through the end of this calendar year and beyond — until every Veteran has a safe, stable place to call home in this country they fought to defend”.