Blog: Homelessness Ends Here

WASHINGTON, DC. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development yesterday issued its 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, a national study that explores changes in homelessness nationwide. HUD's assessment concludes that while overall homelessness in America held fairly steady from 2007 to 2008, the number of homeless families, particularly those living in suburban and rural areas, increased. In addition to the annual report, HUD Secretary and U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Chairperson Shaun Donovan announced that HUD will, for the first time ever, begin measuring homelessness on a quarterly basis to gain a better understanding of the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness. The first "Homeless Pulse Project" for the first quarter of 2009 is now available. 

"The annual report tells us a great deal but it also begs many questions about how today's housing crisis and job losses are playing out in our shelters and on our streets," said Secretary Donovan. "The Administration's aggressive approach to economic recovery recognizes that during these difficult times, families in certain areas of the country are at extreme risk of falling into homelessness. With our new Quarterly Homeless Pulse Report, we will be able to better understand the impact of the current economic crisis on homelessness across the country."
According to the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, between 2007 and 2008, the number of sheltered homeless individuals remained virtually the same while the number of homeless families seeking shelter increased by nine percent overall, and by nearly 56 percent in suburban and rural areas.

According to HUD, key findings from the new report include:

• About 664,000 people nationwide were homeless - either sheltered or unsheltered - on a single night in January 2008, down about 7,500 people (or one percent) from the previous year.
• The number of people using homeless residential programs during the course of the year remained steady. Between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008, approximately 1.6 million homeless people used shelters or transitional housing programs at least once.
• While the number of homeless individuals in shelters was about the same as last year, the number of people in families increased by 9% to 516,700, suggesting that family homelessness was on the rise at the time of the data collection.

Homeless persons in shelters and on the street continued to be most heavily concentrated in urban areas. One in five people homeless on a single night in January were located in Los Angeles, New York, and Detroit.
However, in the twelve months ending on September 30, 2008, the share of the sheltered homeless populations in suburban and rural areas increased substantially, from 23 percent in 2007 to 32 percent in 2008. 

There were early signs that the economic crisis may have affected trends in homelessness nationally. Notably, a greater share of people accessing the homeless system in 2008 came from stays with friends and family and from places where they had lived a year or more, suggesting that people who had been stably housed were becoming homeless after exhausting their housing options.

The 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) is the fourth in a series of reports prepared by HUD. The 2008 AHAR paints a complete picture of homelessness - including counts of individuals, persons in families, and special population groups such as veterans and those experiencing chronic homelessness. It provides data on how people use different types of shelters, where they were just before entering these residential programs, and how much time they spent in shelters over the course of the year. The new report is the first to provide year-to-year trend information on homelessness nationwide and the first to compare one-night Point-in-Time (PIT) counts over several years.

HUD measures homelessness through the Annual Homeless Assessment Report in two ways:
Point-In-Time 'Snapshots' - these data account for sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night, usually at the end of January. Comparing point-in-time counts over time can reveal important trends about the seasonality of homelessness.

Homeless Management Information Systems - these data provide more detailed information on persons who access a shelter over the course of a full year. In the 2008 AHAR, 222 local communities contributed HMIS data to produce national estimates of sheltered homeless. HUD estimates that approximately 1.6 million persons experienced homelessness and found shelter between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008.

The AHAR and other data on homelessness reported to HUD are only collected annually, which limits HUD's ability to track real-time changes in homelessness. To address this limitation, HUD also released the first "Pulse Report", the result of partnering with nine volunteer Continuums of Care nationwide to collect more timely data on homelessness. The new data will help to gauge whether rising unemployment, increased foreclosures, and a slumping economy are leading to marked increases in homelessness. The up-to-date information will enhance HUD's ability to respond to the economic crisis and inform public policy.

Communities included in the new report are: Phoenix/ Mesa/ Maricopa County, Arizona; Bridgeport, Stratford, and Fairfield, Connecticut; Washington, DC ; Lakeland/ Winterhaven/ Polk County, Florida; Kentucky Balance of State; Shreveport/ Bossier/ Northwest, Louisiana; New York City; Cleveland/Cuyahoga County, Ohio; and Richmond/Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover Counties, Virginia.