Homelessness in the United States

This chapter looks at the nature, extent, and experience of homelessness in the United States. An overview of federal responses to homelessness is provided, alongside a discussion of the definition and enumeration of homelessness. The scale and nature of homelessness, experienced by 580,000 people on a single night just before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the United States in 2020, are explored and the different dimensions, including veteran homelessness, are examined. This chapter also looks at how patterns of homelessness and levels of homelessness have changed over time, including the successes that were achieved in reducing overall homelessness from 2009 to 2019. The state of academic debate on causation and reduction of homelessness is summarized, including Housing First and the use of rapid re-housing. While progress occurs in other areas, this chapter concludes that the prevention of homelessness in the United States remained an aspirational strategy in the early 2020s.