According to a December report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), blue states and the District of Columbia (DC) claimed the top spots for homeless residents per capita.
New York and Vermont came in second and third, with an estimated 103,200, or 52.4 for every 10,000, and roughly 3,295, or 50.9 for every 10,000, respectively.
With 73.3 per 10,000 residents or an estimated 4,922 people, Washington, D.C., had a higher rate of homelessness than all 50 states, according to rates calculated by Axios from the report,
Oregon came in second with an estimated rate of homelessness of nearly 50 per 10,000, or just over 20,000 people, and California came in fifth with 46.5 per 10,000, or roughly 181,399 people, according to Axios.
In September, San Francisco’s homeless camps reached a new high since the pandemic, with over 500 sites, and New York has been hosting more illegal immigrants than homeless, with over 70,000 in emergency or homeless shelters.
In December, Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass touted the results of her Inside Safe program to combat homelessness, but despite the city spending nearly $1 billion per year to address the issue, homeless encampments increased by 40 percent.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom even petitioned the Supreme Court in September to review a decision that barred the state from clearing out homeless camps.
Homelessness in the United States increased by 12% between 2022 and 2023, reaching 653,000 for the first time since the United States began tracking it in 2007. According to the report, the year saw an increase in the number of young people under the age of 25, with over 34,700 identifying as homeless on any given night, a 15% increase from the previous year.
According to the report, red states had the lowest homeless rates in 2023, with Mississippi having only 3.3 per 10,000 people. Louisiana had 6.9 homeless people per 10,000 people, or an estimated 3,169 people, and Alabama was reported to have around 3,300 homeless people in 2023.
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help. Visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps.