2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Reportbold text from the key findings
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development makes an Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress each year. Here’s the bold text from the “Key Findings” page at the front of the 2020 report:
On a single night in 2020, roughly 580,000 people were experiencing homelessness in the United States.
For the fourth consecutive year, homelessness increased nationwide.
Nearly 6 of every 10 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness did so in an urban area, with more than half of all unsheltered people counted in the Continuums of Care (CoCs) that encompass the nation’s 50 largest cities (53%).
2020 marks the first time since data collection began that more individuals experiencing homelessness were unsheltered than were sheltered.
The number of unsheltered people in families with children increased for the first time since data collection began.
Between 2019 and 2020, the number of unsheltered veterans increased by six percent, offset by a three percent decline in sheltered veterans.
On a single night in 2020, 34,000 people under the age of 25 experienced homelessness on their own as “unaccompanied youth.”
The number of individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness increased by fifteen percent between 2019 and 2020.
African Americans and indigenous people (including Native Americans and Pacific Islanders) remained considerably overrepresented among the homeless population compared to the U.S. population.
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