Source: HUD, July 2010
The total number of homeless persons in America dropped slightly between 2008 and 2009, although the number of homeless families increased — almost certainly due to the ongoing effects of the recession. HUD recently released these data as part of The 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress — the fifth in a series that provides both snapshots of homeless persons on a given night in 2009 (usually at the end of January) and a year-long assessment.
The report finds that over 643,000 were homeless the given night, while approximately 1.56 million people spent at least one night in a shelter between October 1, 2008 and September 30, 2009. In addition to the point-in-time and year-long data, this assessment is the first in the series to allow comparisons over time.
