Homelessness in the United States has become an increasingly dire problem, with hundreds of thousands of individuals struggling to find shelter. The number of Americans experiencing homelessness has risen by 12% from the previous year, with approximately 653,000 people reported to be homeless in January 2023, according to a report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
This marks a 48% increase in homelessness since 2015, which is the largest single-year increase ever recorded. Historically, affordable states including Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas have seen the largest rise in the number of unsheltered people due to the rapidly escalating cost of local housing.
One significant cause of homelessness is rising rent prices, which have been increasing relentlessly since 2001. In 2022, the Harvard study concluded that half of U.S. households across all income levels spend between 30% and 50% of their monthly income on housing, thereby making them “cost-burdened,” while a staggering 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened and spent over half of their income on rent and utilities. Notably, rent prices rose despite meager wage gains, and tenants earning between $45,000 to $74,999 per year were hit particularly hard. On average, they spent 41% of their paycheck on rent and utilities.
The report indicates that while a range of factors contribute to homelessness, rising rents and the expiration of pandemic relief last year were also instrumental in driving up homelessness statistics. Although renter protections, income support, and housing assistance helped stave off a considerable rise in homelessness during the first years of the pandemic, many of these protections ended precisely as housing prices were soaring, and migrants were prohibited from working. As a result, the number of people experiencing homelessness jumped by nearly 71,000 within just one year.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development advocates that tenants spend no more than 30% of their income on rent. The rent prices in the US have gone beyond this limit, and the median rent in the US was recorded as $1,964 in December 2023, according to online housing marketplace Rent. This cost reflects a 23% increase from before the pandemic, while inflation-adjusted weekly earnings for the median worker only rose 1.7% between 2019 and 2023.
Although there are some signs that the rental market is cooling down, the overall situation remains dire. Unaffordable rent prices undoubtedly continue to contribute to homelessness across the country, and as more people struggle to keep a roof over their heads, policymakers must act to address this significant societal issue.
