U.S. sees dramatic rise in homelessness among families in 2024

Lisa Desjardins:

Welcome to the "News Hour."

Homelessness in America reached record high numbers earlier this year. A government report out today reveals that, last January, the number of people experiencing homelessness shot up by 18 percent to roughly 770,000, as counted on a single night.

The annual survey published by the Department of Housing and Urban Development pointed to a list of intensifying economic problems, rising housing costs and the migrant influx in some cities among them.

To understand more about what's behind this rise, I'm joined by Shaun Donovan, CEO and president of Enterprise Community Partners and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Shaun, this is an eye-popping report in many ways. It's about where things stood earlier this year. And I want to start with one particular dynamic, the role of the migrant crisis. How and where did that affect homelessness in this country?

Shaun Donovan, Former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary: Well, Lisa, first of all, thank you for having me on.

And it is tragic news, the largest increase we have ever seen in homelessness since we started recording these numbers. And specifically to your question, there's certainly no question that the rise in the number of migrant families in the U.S. did contribute to this, particularly in some of the places where we saw the biggest increases, places like New York City or Massachusetts, Chicago, Denver.

But I think what's really stunning about these numbers is how broad the challenge is. We saw 18 states reach record levels, including places like Kansas, Alaska, Utah, places — Idaho is another one — places where there isn't a significant influx of migrants.

And so there's a much bigger story here about record levels of housing costs, both for owning and renting, higher than — somebody like me, who has been doing this for a long time for 30 years, I have never seen the affordable housing crisis this bad.

Lisa Desjardins:

One thing that also stands out in this report is a particularly vulnerable population, kids.

I want to look at some of the statistics that they found. First of all, they found, for families and children, one of the largest increases in homelessness, families, a 39 percent spike in 2024 from 2023. And on that January night that they surveyed, they found 150,000 children experiencing in — homelessness.

And in shelters, the number of unaccompanied children has reached record numbers. Why is it that you think right now our nation's children are being disproportionately affected and seeing this rise in vulnerability to homelessness?

Shaun Donovan:

Well, Lisa, as you can imagine, as a parent myself, families will do everything possible to try to avoid ending up on the streets or in shelter. They will move in with relatives. They will do anything they can.

And I think this 39 percent increase in families with children experiencing homelessness is the single most tragic part of the report. And I think it's really a reflection that, increasingly, in this country, you can hold down a full-time job or even, in a couple, two full-time jobs and still not be able to afford housing.

Estimates are that about half of all people experiencing homelessness are working. And so we have to recognize that this is a housing crisis that is affecting everyone in our society, but, most acutely, those of our neighbors who end up sleeping on the streets or in shelters.

Lisa Desjardins:

There are some real sirens in this report, as you're saying, but these were numbers from January.

Can you talk about what may have happened since then that kind of puts these numbers in a different perspective?

Shaun Donovan:

Well, Lisa, the first thing I would say is, it isn't just this year.

This was an 18 percent increase, but it comes on the heels of a 12 percent increase last year in these numbers, so roughly a third increase over two years. Both of those were record increases in homelessness that we have seen.

So what I think has begun to change in this country really is two things. One is that we had a Supreme Court decision this past summer in a case that for the first time really allowed communities to criminalize homelessness, and I'm deeply concerned about this.

We know that ticketing someone, putting them in jail because they don't have anywhere to go not only is counterproductive in the short term. In the long term, it actually increases homelessness, because, as you can imagine, if you have a criminal conviction, much harder to find housing, harder to find a job.

And we know from the evidence that this is counterproductive. But I'm concerned the frustration levels are rising. More and more communities are seeing increases in homelessness. The other thing I would say, though, on a more hopeful note, is, our housing crisis has reached such a scale of proportion that we're seeing more and more bipartisanship around the need to solve our housing crisis, to build more affordable housing, to build more different kinds of housing from homeownership to rental and everything in between.

And so that, I think, is really a hopeful sign. We do know how to solve homelessness. We have made progress in this country. And, in particular, even among these bleak numbers this year, we saw a 7.5 percent decrease in the number of veterans who are sleeping on our streets or in shelter.

And so we can take that example of what works and we can scale it and really begin to reverse the tide of these tragic numbers.

Lisa Desjardins:

And I know from those who put the report out that they think that the migrant surge has in fact quelled since the Biden administration's policies have changed over the summer. So, we will see what next year's report looks like.

Shaun Donovan, thank you so much for talking with us.

Shaun Donovan:

Thank you, Lisa. Happy holidays.