The homeless services world will grapple with the fallout from the pandemic for several years to come. In a series of surveys that began last year, the Alliance gathered and shared real-time information from the field. The work to understand the crisis continues with the recent release of The State of Homelessness: 2021 Edition.

Drawing from the 2020 Point-in-Time Count, the report paints a picture of homelessness and homeless services less than two months before the COVID-19 crisis began. At the time, there were already reasons to be concerned about homelessness. Now that pandemic is compounding that status quo, it is time to sound an alarm.

Troubling Trends

The annual Point-in-Time Count was already underway a few weeks before 2020’s national emergency declaration. It would later reveal a fourth straight year of homeless population increases. Thus far, these increases have been modest. However, they are slowly eroding previous progress made by the homeless services world. As of early 2020, the size of the overall population was only 10 percent smaller than when data collection began in 2007.

Many of the challenges surrounding these increases involve individuals experiencing homelessness. Counts among this cohort have been trending upwards over the last couple of years, increasing by 15 percent. They make up the largest subpopulation within homelessness. Mainly adult men living on their own, they can attract less sympathy from policymakers and the general public than other groups such as women with children. Thus, the assistance available to them in communities across the country may be limited. In 2020, the number of individuals experiencing homelessness was only 1 percent lower than the record high that existed in 2007.

Delving below the surface reveals other troubling trends for some individuals. For the first time in the history of data collection, most individuals were unsheltered. They were not accessing the system of temporary beds and cots that significantly represent the nation’s response to homelessness.

Additionally, after years of significant progress in addressing their needs and reducing their homeless counts, chronic homelessness among individuals is on the rise. In 2020, this subset of individuals was 43 percent larger than they were just a few years earlier in 2016.

Read the full article about concerning homelessness trends by Joy Moses at National Alliance to End Homelessness.