Why We Don’t Know How the Pandemic Affected U.S. Homelessness
The latest federal point-in-time count on homelessness reveals how the pandemic disrupted data-gathering on how many people were living in shelters and on the streets of U.S. cities.
Tents across the street from the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., on June 13, 2021.
Photographer: Dee Dwyer/BloombergThe number of people in U.S. cities sleeping in shelters shifted dramatically at the height of the pandemic — but maybe not for the reasons government leaders would like.
According to a new count released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Feb. 4, sheltered homelessness across the U.S. fell 8% between 2020 and 2021, a steep drop-off after years of gradual decline. The number of people in families with children staying in shelters registered an even sharper decline, falling by 15%.