HUD released the 2021 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) on February 4. A yearly report examining the prevalence of homelessness in the United States, AHAR typically provides information on both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. However, in 2021, HUD encouraged communities to consider the potential for COVID-19 transmission and gave them the option of reporting only data on sheltered homelessness. Only 226 communities conducted counts focused on unsheltered homelessness, complicating efforts to extrapolate from the results to the rest of the country. As a result, the 2021 report addresses people experiencing sheltered homelessness only.
According to survey results, on a single night in January 2021, more than 326,000 people in the United States experienced sheltered homelessness, an 8% decrease from January 2020. The number of families with children experiencing sheltered homelessness also declined by 15%, dropping to just over 131,000 people, while the number of individuals experiencing sheltered homelessness remained relatively flat, dropping just 2% to 236,500 people in 2021. Chronically homeless individuals – those with a disability who have experienced homelessness continually for at least a year or who have experienced at least four episodes of homelessness within the last three years – increased by 20% between 2020 and 2021.
Sheltered veteran homelessness decreased by 10%, the largest one-year decline since 2015/16, and the number of people under the age of 25 experiencing sheltered homelessness declined 9% to 15,763 people. However, the number of sheltered unaccompanied youth who identify as transgender increased by 29%, and sheltered homelessness among gender non-conforming youths increased by 26%. Additionally, the number of Native American youths experiencing sheltered homelessness increased by 21%.
Researchers speculate that the overall drop in sheltered homelessness can be attributed to health concerns related to COVID-19 transmission in congregate shelters. Providers also increased the space between congregate shelter beds to adhere to COVID-19 mitigation guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving fewer beds available. Funding from the COVID-19 relief packages, including the “CARES Act,” “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020,” and “American Rescue Plan Act,” as well as federal, state, and local eviction moratoriums also likely played a significant role in keeping people safely housed.
The report indicates a 134% increase in the availability of non-congregate emergency shelter beds. Many communities utilized COVID-19 relief funding to convert congregate settings – which increase the risk of transmitting COVID-19 – into non-congregate shelters, including by purchasing hotels and motels.
Read the AHAR at: https://tinyurl.com/57tb59kv