State of Homelessness in the US: 2022 Report
The current edition of this report analyzes available data on homelessness for 2022 and over time.
Key facts and data points include:
Homelessness has been on the rise since 2017, experiencing an overall increase of 6 percent.
In 2022, counts of individuals (421,392 people) and chronically homeless individuals (127,768) reached record highs in the history of data collection.
Unsheltered rates are also trending upward, impacting most racial, ethnic, and gender subgroups.
Homeless services systems continued to expand the availability of both temporary and permanent beds in 2022, but these resources still fall short of reaching everyone in need.
Homelessness rose by a modest 0.3 percent from 2020 to 2022, a period marked by both pandemic-related economic disruptions and robust investments of federal resources into human services.
The State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide an overview of the scope of homelessness in the U.S. on a given night in 2022, and illustrate emerging trends. Data in this report is pulled from HUD’s 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count data, as well as Housing Inventory Count data. Each section features interactive charts to display this data, with highlights discussed in the text of this report.
According to the January 2022 PIT Count, 582,462 people were experiencing homelessness across America. This amounts to roughly 18 out of every 10,000 people1. The vast majority (72 percent) were individual adults, but a notable share (28 percent) were people living in families with children.
However, there is more to the story of homelessness in 2022. This section will delve deeper into questions of 1) who is experiencing homelessness, 2) where they are experiencing it, and 3) the degree to which people are living unsheltered.
Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: Special Populations
For reasons rooted in practice and policy, the homeless services world focuses on specific special populations. Of people experiencing homeless:
22 percent are chronically homeless individuals (or people with disabilities who have experienced long-term or repeated incidents of homelessness)
6 percent are veterans (distinguished due to their service to the country), and
5 percent are unaccompanied youth under 25 (considered vulnerable due to their age)
Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Race/Ethnicity
Available data demonstrates that race and ethnicity are key determinants2 that impact 1) who will become homeless and 2) the type and depth of rehousing barriers people will experience.
Within the 2022 PIT Count data, White people are numerically the largest racial group. They represent half (50 percent) of all people experiencing homelessness. However, issues of representation are more complicated than that data point would suggest.
Most groups of color have higher rates of homelessness than their White counterparts—and, in some cases, far higher. Within the White group, 11 out of every 10,000 people experience homelessness. For Black people, that number is more than four times as large—48 out of every 10,000 people. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders particularly stand out as having the highest rates, with 121 out of every 10,000 people experiencing homelessness.3
The racial and ethnic groups with the highest incidences of homelessness have extensive histories of experiencing oppression, including displacements from land and property and exclusions from housing opportunities. Effectively addressing homelessness will likely require invested partners to account for America’s history, and that history’s influence on current culture, policy, and practice.
Who is Experiencing Homelessness in 2022: By Gender
Gender also matters. Within the overall homeless population (which includes both adults and children), men, who are 68 percent of the individuals population, far outnumber women and are far more likely to experience homelessness. Serious systemic failures are occurring in relation to some of America’s men, implicating holes in the social safety net, challenges within feeder systems, and barriers to rehousing.
Meanwhile, women (both those living as individuals and in families with children) and people who identify as transgender, nonbinary (“not singularly female or male,” per HUD), and questioning are also notably represented within homelessness (see visualization below). They have unique barriers and needs that must also be addressed.
Who is Unsheltered in 2022
Throughout America, numerous dedicated workers use limited available resources to serve people experiencing homelessness. On a given night, the homeless services system provides shelter for 348,630 people. Despite these significant efforts, 40 percent of people experiencing homelessness live unsheltered, which means their primary nighttime residence is a place not suitable for human habitation (for example, a city sidewalk, vehicle, abandoned building, or park). Significantly, living unsheltered can impact a person’s health and safety.
Individuals are particularly likely to be unsheltered. The majority of the group (51 percent) are sleeping in these settings. For the subset of individuals who are chronically homeless, the status quo is particularly dire—62 percent are unsheltered. Families with children, who are often prioritized for services, are least likely to live unsheltered—11 percent live in such situations.
Race- and gender-based inequalities are readily evident in unsheltered homelessness (see visualization below). When subgroups are not accessing or utilizing shelter, it suggests they may not be equally benefitting from government investments in solutions to homelessness.
Members of the LGBTQ community accounted for in current data collection (i.e., people who identified on HUD surveys within the categories of transgender, gender questioning, or nonbinary), have particularly high rates of unsheltered homelessness. Many other populations also stand out, having levels of unsheltered homelessness that surpass those of the overall population. This includes every racial, ethnic, and gender group except women and Black people, whose levels of unsheltered homelessness are less than the overall population. The reasons for these disparities are worthy of further research and analysis.
