Estimating the Number of Homeless in America

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), about 554,000 homeless people lived there somewhere in the US last night. A total of 193,000 of these people are "unprotected", so they live on the street and can not enter emergency evacuation centers, temporary residences, or safe shelters. Despite the rapidly growing stock market and strong economic growth, many Americans are still working hard to maintain livelihoods.

In order to summarize the data HUD recently appreciated for the homeless people in the United States, I created the following infographic. Especially in West Coast province, more affordable housing to cope with the homeless crisis is needed

The number of homeless people collected by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is the last 10 days of January every year (PIT). Data is recorded in the country, CoC (Continuum of Care) and the state. For details of HUD data collection method, please click here. Data and reports can be downloaded from here.

The number of homeless people per 10 thousand in 2017 is calculated by dividing the number of former homeless people by the total number of inhabitants of a particular state. The number of inhabitants in each state was obtained from "2016 US Community Survey 1 Year Forecast" published in census.gov. Data can be downloaded from here

Average price data by state is the price as of November 2017 and it can be downloaded from here.

An estimate of the annual number of homeless people in the United States comes from a study by the National Center for Homelessness and Poverty, which estimates that from 3.3 million to 3.5 million are homeless. According to a report by the US Residential Urban Development Ministry in 2008, an estimated 671,888 people lost their homes in January 2007. Approximately 58% of those live in evacuation centers and provisional houses, and 42% are not protected. According to the National Home Alliance, 23% of homeless people are said to have been homeless for a long time. According to the definition of HUD, a person of "long-term homeless" is a homeless person (eg, substance abuse, severe mental illness, developmental disorder, or chronic physical disorder) without disabled companion. Homeless for over 1 year, or at least 4 homeless events in the past 3 years

The way to estimate the size of the homeless population is evolving, sometimes questioned and complicated by differences in homeless definition. The US Census has a complex and service-based definition of homeless definition when trying to determine the number of homeless people and services using a specific type of homeless person. We also acknowledge that the ability to define and enumerate homeless people is limited (after all, national household survey). In 2000, the Census Bureau determined the population of emergency and transition housing (E & TS) by investigating people using sample homeless services. They counted emergency evacuation centers for adults, evacuation centers for young people without violence, evacuation centers for abused women and their children, kitchens of soup, and certain outdoor facilities.