The number of homeless people in America grew in 2023 as high cost of living took a toll

Tens of thousands more people in the U.S. were homeless in 2023 compared with 2022 as high costs of living pushed some of the most vulnerable Americans into shelters and the streets.

Homelessness shot up by more than 12% this year, reaching 653,104 people. The numbers represent the sharpest increase and largest unhoused population since the federal government began tallying totals in 2007, the U.S. Department of Urban Planning and Development said Friday. Last year, federal data showed 582,462 people experienced homelessness.

The federal government calculates the number each year based on counts from local officials on a single night in January.

The population of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, who are particularly at risk of violence and criminalization, increased, as well as the number of people living in shelters.

The data comes months after the federal government found the U.S. is facing growing rates of poverty and food insecurity. In 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, more than 12% of the nation was living below the poverty line and nearly 13% said they didn't have enough to eat.

The U.S. saw such a sharp increase this year because more people are becoming unhoused faster, according to Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homeless. More people are also becoming homeless for the first time, she said.

"That move from a housed situation to an unhoused situation is happening more quickly, and it's more direct," Oliva said. "More folks are reporting, as they're showing up in the homeless services system, that they're coming directly from a lease."

Unlike in years past, the spike in U.S. homelessness was driven by increases among all populations and demographics, HUD said Friday, including unhoused families with children and unhoused veterans.

"It's alarming," Oliva said.

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Why are more people becoming homeless?

The nation's unhoused population increased so sharply because people are becoming unhoused at a greater rate than people exit homelessness, HUD officials said Friday.

In recent years, homeless services providers have been particularly strained, according to Oliva, because more people need help, and at the same time it has been harder to get people housed because housing costs have increased.

"The cost of rent is outpacing our ability to get folks housed," she said.

High housing costs continue to be a financial stressor for the poorest Americans. In recent years, more people in the U.S. are rent-burdened, according to HUD, meaning they spend more than 30% or even over 50% of their income on rent.

In 2021 and 2022, as millions of Americans struggled with high rents, increasing grocery bills and other essential expenses, pandemic-era government financial assistance waned or ended, Oliva said.

"There's a pipeline of people who are deeply at risk," she said.

Evictions nationwide have been steadily increasing since fall 2021, when the national eviction moratorium ended, according to Princeton University's Eviction Lab. In late 2022, emergency rental assistance from the federal government also stopped.

From 2020 to 2022, the number of people who became homeless for the first time increased by 30%, according to HUD data.

Even as more people became homeless and it became harder to house them, homeless services providers across the country helped more than 420,000 people in the U.S. exit or avoid homelessness, HUD announced this month.

In a statement Friday, U.S. Interagency Council on Homeless Executive Director Jeff Olivet said pandemic-era protections prevented even more people from falling into homelessness in 2021 and 2022.

"During the height of the pandemic, the nation came together and chose to invest more in housing, health care, income supports, and other wraparound services to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place," he said.

More children, veterans became homeless

In contrast to recent years, 2023 saw increases among homeless families with children, veterans and unaccompanied young people, HUD officials said Friday.

• Since 2022, the number of families with children experiencing homelessness rose by more than 15%. But the increase was almost completely driven by families who were able to access homeless shelters, HUD said.

• Veteran homelessness, which had historically seen some of the steepest declines in the U.S., increased by more than 7%. From 2020 to 2022, veteran homelessness dropped by more than 11%.

• Unaccompanied people ages 24 and younger made up 22% of all homeless young people in 2023, HUD said. Since last year, the number of unaccompanied homeless young people increased by 15%, including increases for sheltered and unsheltered youth. Foster youth who age out of the foster care system without secure housing and LGBTQ+ youth are some of the groups most likely to fall into youth homelessness.

These cities reduced homelessness, fought evictions

Across the country, elected officials and nonprofits in some cities have reduced homelessness by working with landlords and helping people remain in their homes.

Houston saw a 17% drop in street homelessness, after more than 4,500 residents were moved from the street to housing or prevented from becoming homeless, the mayor's office says.

In Philadelphia, the city's eviction diversion program helped a majority of participating landlords and tenants avoid evictions, by mediating any landlord-tenant disputes without taking cases to court.

This year, Chattanooga, Tennessee, saw more than a 30% drop in unsheltered homelessness after officials used American Rescue Plan money to pay people's rents and axed a lottery process the county had used for housing vouchers. The city also worked directly with landlords to prevent evictions and keep people housed.

Local providers put in the hard work and saw positive results, Oliva said, and "their housing market is not quite as tight as as what you see on the coasts and in some other big cities," she said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Homelessness in America grew in 2023 as cost of living ballooned