Number of homeless Americans rises sharply to 770,000

The number of homeless people in the United States has increased by more than 18 percent this year compared to last year, the US Department of Housing reports. According to the department, more than 770,000 people are now without a roof over their heads.

One of the causes is the rising rent of homes, which has made them unaffordable for many people. The increase can also be explained by the end of the corona support that many people were still receiving.

The state of California has the highest number of homeless people, followed by New York, Washington, Florida and Massachusetts. The number of homeless people is especially high among African Americans.

Natural disasters

The number of families that became homeless increased by almost 40 percent last year. Natural disasters also played a role. For example, a major forest fire on the Hawaiian island of Maui in the summer of 2023 caused more than 5,200 people to lose their homes. The number of veterans living on the streets has fallen by 8 percent this year to 32,882.

The count was in January, as in previous years, and included people in shelters, people in temporary housing and people on the streets, according to the Department of Housing. In 2020, at the time of COVID-19, there were still 550,000 Americans without home. More than 346 million people live in the United States.