- By Marcus White | Examiner staff writer
- Dec 15, 2023 Updated 20 hrs ago (SFExaminer.com)
It’s not just San Francisco.
National homelessness rose 12% between 2022 and 2023, according to an annual federal report submitted to Congress on Friday, up to its highest level since the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development started recording data in 2007.
Federal housing officials estimated that, on any given night this year, about 653,100 people experienced homelessness. Most homelessness agencies across the U.S. counted unsheltered and sheltered homelessness one night in January of this year, while others — including The City, which didn’t conduct an overall point-in-time count this year — only counted sheltered homelessness, carrying forward last year’s unsheltered count.
Nearly 6,000 more people in the U.S. experienced homelessness this year on a given night than the previous high in 2007, and almost 71,000 more did than last year. This year’s 12% increase is the largest the agency has recorded, which officials said was, at least in part, the result of COVID-19 relief funding expiring or winding down.
“This data underscores the urgent need for support for proven solutions and strategies that help people quickly exit homelessness and that prevent homelessness in the first place,” U.S. Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement.
HUD released the figures Friday, which highlight that San Francisco’s experiences with homelessness have also been felt on a national level amid a shortage of permanent and temporary housing.
A Realtor.com report published in March estimated that, from 2012 to 2022, the U.S. built 2.3 million fewer multifamily and single-family homes than households formed over that decade. The federal data published Friday also indicated that there are nearly 204,000 fewer year-round shelter beds than people experiencing homelessness.
San Francisco has more than 3,850 shelter beds after The City added another 300 to its capacity last month. Combining this year’s sheltered homelessness count with last year’s tally of unsheltered homelessness, The City’s shelter capacity is more than 3,700 beds shy of its overall homeless population.
The San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said the national growth “reflects the challenge we are facing locally in addressing homelessness.”
“Housing affordability, economic inequality, and racial disparities continue to drive homelessness across the U.S.,” spokesperson Emily Cohen said in a statement.
San Francisco will conduct its next point-in-time count next month. Two years ago, during the last count, The City recorded a 3.5% reduction in overall homelessness from 2019 and a 15% drop in unsheltered homelessness.
