HUD released the 2012 Point-in-Time Estimates: Part 1 of the 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress on November 21. These annual data come from a one-night count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations throughout the nation. This year’s report showed an overall decline in homelessness, as well as reductions for most major subpopulations counted.
On a single night in January 2013, 610,042 people in the United States were homeless, a 3.8% reduction from 2012 and a 6.1% reduction since 2010. Nearly two-thirds of those experiencing homelessness—394,698 persons—were living in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, but 35% still were living in unsheltered locations. Nearly a quarter (23%) were children, more than six in ten (64%) were individuals, and 36% were in families. Chronic homelessness among individuals decreased 7.3% since 2012 and 15.7% since 2010. There were 57,849 homeless veterans, a 7.6% reduction since 2012 and a 24.2% reduction since 2010.
The report shows significant geographic disparities in the number of homeless people. More than half of the nation’s homeless population was in California (22%), New York (13%), Florida (8%), Texas (5%), or Massachusetts (3%). Although the national rate of unsheltered homeless people decreased by 11.6%, more than half of those homeless in California, Florida, Arkansas, Nevada, Mississippi, and Oregon were unsheltered on a the single night. States also experienced varying degrees of changes in the number of homeless persons. New York had the largest increase from 2007-2013, 23.7% or 14,929 individuals, compared to a national 9.2% decrease. California had the largest decrease during that period, falling by 22,906 persons.
For the second year, point-in-time estimates were available at the Continuum of Care (CoC)-level, allowing for data analysis for large cities, smaller cities, and suburban/rural areas. The report shows that major city CoCs accounted for 45% of homeless people in the nation; nearly 20% of homeless people were counted in either Los Angeles or New York City on a single night in 2013.
The report provides an inventory of beds available to homeless people, ranging from emergency shelters and transitional housing to permanent supportive housing programs. On the single night count, there were 730,376 beds, 58% of which were for homeless people in shelter and 42% of which were permanent housing beds. This represents a 4.2% increase from 2012 and a 19.5% increase since 2007.
HUD continues to credit the HUD-VA Supportive Housing (VASH) program for veterans and the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) for the declines.
Read the report: http://bit.ly/1e4GxDW