Talk about timing. On the same day Houston sees it’s first bout of winter weather (forcing many to worry about the city’s homeless for the first time since last year), Federal authorities released their new analysis of homelessness across the nation on Monday.
Using a snapshot survey taken last January, the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs finds that 633,782 people were homeless in the United States. A number largely unchanged from the 2011 national survey, although certain cities and populations show positive change, notably veterans.
Locally a 14% decline in was found in the 2012 Houston survey a was reported in August by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County.
As in Houston, during a single night in late January, local planners or “Continuums of Care” across the nation conducted a one-night count of their sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations. These one-night ‘snapshot’ counts are then reported to HUD as part of state and local grant applications. While the data reported to HUD does not directly determine the level of a community’s grant funding, these estimates, as well as full-year counts, are crucial in understanding the scope of homelessness and measuring progress in reducing it.
Key Findings of HUD’s 2012 national homeless count
On a single night in January 2012, local communities or ‘Continuums of Care’ reported:
- 633,782 people were homeless. This is largely unchanged (-0.4%) from January 2011, and a represents a reduction of 5.7 percent since 2007. Most homeless persons (62 percent) are individuals while 38 percent of homeless persons are in family households.
- Veteran homelessness fell by 7.2 percent (or 4,876 persons) since January 2011 and by 17.2 percent since January 2009. On a single night in January 2012, 62,619 veterans were homeless.
- Persons experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness declined 6.8 percent (or 7,254) from last year and 19.3 percent (or 23,939 persons) since 2007.
- Homelessness among individuals declined 1.4 percent (or 5,457) from a year ago and 6.8 percent since 2007. Meanwhile, the number of homeless families increased slightly (1.4 %) from last year though declining 3.7 percent since 2007.
- Street homelessness (“the unsheltered homeless population) was unchanged since January 2011 yet declined 13.1 percent (or 36,860 people) since 2007.
- Five states accounted for nearly half of the nation’s population in 2012: California (20.7 percent), New York 11.0 percent), Florida (8.7 percent), Texas (5.4 percent), and Georgia (3.2 percent).