Homelessness in the US has jumped to a record as high housing costs and the expiration of pandemic aid worsened the cost of living crisis.
About 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development said on Friday in its most recent annual “point in time” report.
Between 2021 and 2022, the number of people who became newly homeless jumped 25 per cent, likely fuelled by an increase in rental prices.
Although the pandemic era red-hot housing market has cooled, the lack of homes for sale and high mortgages have kept pressure on home prices, which rose for the eighth consecutive month in September. Accordingly, more Americans have turned to renting, driving up prices.
Homelessness had been rising from 2016 to 2020 but President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 stimulus package prevented an increase between 2020 and 2022, HUD said. But as many of those benefits expire, homelessness is on the rise again.
Increases in homelessness on a single night in January 2023 compared with a year earlier
12%
Increase in the overall number of homeless people
25%
Increase in the number of people who were newly homeless
