Washington, D.C. – The 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count, released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), underscores the urgent need for policymakers at all levels of government to invest in proven solutions at the scale needed to fully address our nation’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis.
“Increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing,” said Renee Willis, incoming interim CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “As advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience have warned, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to increase as more people struggle to afford sky-high housing costs.”
The primary causes of homelessness are the inability to afford housing and the severe shortage of affordable homes. Nationally, there is a shortage of 7.3 million homes affordable and available to people with the lowest incomes. Put another way, there are fewer than four homes for every 10 extremely low-income households. No state has an adequate supply of deeply affordable homes. Without affordable options, more than 10 million of these households pay more than half of their limited incomes on rent, leaving them with few resources to make ends meet. They are always one financial shock away from falling behind on rent and facing eviction and, in the worst cases, homelessness. Despite the clear need, only one in four people eligible for housing assistance receives any help due to chronic underfunding by Congress. Because of systemic racism, Black, Indigenous, and people of color are more likely to experience housing cost burdens, evictions, and homelessness than their white counterparts.
Decades of research demonstrate that the most effective approach to addressing homelessness is to provide individuals with access to stable, affordable, accessible housing and voluntary supportive services, such as case management, mental health and substance use services, and employment services to help improve housing stability and well-being. This approach – known as “Housing First” – is credited with having cut veteran homelessness in half since 2010.
The failure to fund deeply affordable housing hurts long-time residents and newcomers alike. Some communities have seen an increase in asylum seekers or other new immigrants this year, and the lack of rental and income assistance has left many newcomers with nowhere to stay while they get on their feet. Homelessness is unacceptable regardless of who experiences it. In such a powerful, wealthy country, we have the resources to ensure everyone an affordable place to live.
To fully address America’s affordable housing and homelessness crisis, Congress must invest at the scale needed to ensure that renters with the lowest incomes have an affordable place to call home. As outlined in NLIHC’s national HoUSed campaign policy agenda, federal investments are needed to bridge the gap between incomes and housing costs through universal rental assistance, build and preserve rental homes affordable to people with the lowest incomes, prevent evictions and homelessness by stabilizing families during a crisis, and strengthen and enforce renter protections to address the power imbalance that tilts heavily in favor of landlords.
“These data confirm what we already know: that too many of our friends, neighbors, and family members are experiencing the crisis of not having a place to call home. Without significant and sustained federal investments to make housing affordable for people with the lowest incomes, the affordable housing and homelessness crisis in this country will only continue to worsen,” said Willis.