Five Key Facts About People Experiencing Homelessness

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), nearly 746,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2025, an over 30% increase from 2019, but also a 3% decrease from the highest levels ever recorded in 2024. The links between homelessness and health are complex, and past KFF research found that people with prior experiences of homelessness have disproportionate physical and mental health needs and face greater socioeconomic challenges compared to those who have never experienced homelessness. People experiencing homelessness who are unsheltered also experience higher rates of chronic homelessness, chronic disease, mental illness, and substance abuse than those who are sheltered.

This data note reviews trends in homelessness and characteristics of people who are homeless using data from HUD’s Point-in-Time (PIT) count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. The PIT count is generally conducted on a single night during the last ten days of January. While the PIT count is the primary nationally standardized measure to track trends in homelessness over time, these estimates likely undercount the total number of people experiencing homelessness, particularly among the unsheltered, due to challenges locating individuals who are unsheltered, local staffing capacity, and weather. The PIT count also does not include people who are staying with family or friends, referred to as “doubling up”, in other unstable housing situations, or living in permanent supportive housing.

These data capture a look at homelessness amid a number of federal policy changes aimed at clearing homeless encampments, limiting provisions for housing alternatives, and potentially resulting in institutionalization among people experiencing homelessness. President Trump signed an executive order in July 2025 on homelessness, mental health, and substance use that encouraged states to remove unhoused people from public spaces, following nationwide passage of Supreme Court-backed local laws making it easier for law enforcement to ticket, fine, or arrest people sleeping on public property. HUD proposed to shift homelessness services spending away from “Housing First” programs–which provide immediate housing without preconditions such as sobriety or mandatory mental health treatment—towards “transitional housing” programs, and require local homelessness services entities to cooperate with law enforcement to prohibit homeless encampments, but was blocked by court ruling in June 2026. Most recently, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued an opinion in June 2026 and a notice in July 2026 challenging the longstanding interpretation of the Olmstead Supreme Court decision, signaling narrower federal enforcement of the integration mandate, which has helped spur state investment in rental assistance, supportive housing, and community services for people with disabilities. These changes could potentially result in fewer community services and increased institutionalization among people experiencing homelessness. 

1. From 2019 to 2025, the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night increased by over 30% to nearly 746,000 people, with nearly four in ten (36%) staying in unsheltered locations.

The HUD PIT survey counts people experiencing homelessness in both sheltered and unsheltered settings on a single night. People are counted as unsheltered if they sleep in locations not ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation, such as cars, parks, abandoned buildings, or campgrounds. The remainder of people experiencing homelessness were in sheltered locations, with nearly six in ten (56%) staying in emergency shelters and nearly one in ten (8%) in transitional housing, which is temporary housing with supportive services (Figure 1).

Between 2019 and 2025, the number of people experiencing homelessness rose by 31%. This increase was primarily driven by the growth in the number of people staying in emergency shelters and experiencing unsheltered homelessness, while the number of people in transitional housing declined over the same period. According to HUD, rising housing costs and the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023, which ended the eviction moratorium and other income and safety net programs, drove recent increases. Counts of people experiencing homelessness peaked in 2024 and then decreased 3% from 2024 to 2025, with nearly 60% of the decrease driven by a reduction in the number of people in emergency shelters.

Beyond shifts in sheltered and unsheltered homelessness, the share of people experiencing homelessness identified as “chronic homelessness”—defined by HUD as having a disability, including physical, mental, developmental, substance use-related, or HIV/AIDS-related disabilities, and experiencing long-term or repeated episodes of homelessness of at least 12 months—increased from 19% in 2019 to 23% in 2025 (from about 106,000 to 170,000). However, the share of adults experiencing homelessness who were veterans fell from 8% in 2019 to 5% in 2025 (from about 37,000 to 33,000), similar to their share of the general adult population (6%). An increase in housing assistance programs from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in recent years likely drove this decrease.

2. In 2025, over eight in ten (82%) people experiencing homelessness were adults, with decreases in the number of people experiencing homelessness seen across age groups since 2024 except among adults ages 55 and older.

On a single night in January 2025, there were about 612,000 adults and 134,000 children experiencing homelessness, with adults consistently representing about eight in ten of all people experiencing homelessness since 2019 (Figure 2). The number of children experiencing homelessness increased 25% from 2019 to 2025. However, after several years as the fastest-growing age group among people experiencing homelessness, the number of children experiencing homelessness fell 10% (from about 148,000 to 134,000) from 2024 to 2025. Most households with children experiencing homelessness are sheltered, as children made up less than one in ten (4%) unsheltered people in 2025. Housing insecurity during childhood is associated with negative health outcomes later in life, including anxiety and depression. The number of adults experiencing homelessness fell 11% among adults ages 18-24 and 2% among adults ages 25-54 from 2024 to 2025 but increased among those ages 55 and older by 2%. While long-term data for these specific age ranges are not available prior to the 2023 PIT count, research found that adults born between 1955 and 1965 have comprised a disproportionate share of single adults experiencing sheltered homelessness across several decades, suggesting that the aging of this cohort has contributed to the recent rise in adults ages 65 and older experiencing homelessness.  

3. In 2025, Southern and Western states had higher shares of people who were experiencing homelessness who were unsheltered compared to other parts of the country.

States in the Northeast and West had higher rates of people experiencing homelessness per 10,000 people than elsewhere in the country on a single night in January 2025 (Figure 3). The share of people experiencing homelessness who were unsheltered by state were highest in Southern and Western states, including in California (64%), Oregon (61%), Arizona (56%), and Georgia (54%). In contrast, the shares of people experiencing homelessness who were unsheltered were lowest in New York (4%) and Massachusetts (6%), despite these states having relatively high rates of people experiencing homelessness per 10,000 people. These patterns may reflect a combination of local factors, including climate, housing costs, shelter capacity, right to shelter laws, and law enforcement policies that bring more people into emergency shelters or other sheltered housing.

4. In 2025, about seven in ten (67%) people experiencing homelessness were people of color.

White (33%), Black (31%), and Hispanic (27%) people each accounted for about three in ten of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2025, with other racial and ethnic groups making up smaller shares (less than 5%) (Figure 4). Black, Hispanic, AIAN, and NHPI people made up a disproportionate share of the people experiencing homelessness compared to their share of the total population.

5. From 2019 to 2025, the share of adults experiencing homelessness with serious mental illness (SMI) or substance use disorder (SUD) remained stable, suggesting that rising homelessness reflects broader factors affecting both people with and without these conditions.

In 2025, about a quarter (24%, or 146,000) of adults experiencing homelessness on a single night in January met HUD’s SMI definition and nearly one in five (18%, or 112,000) had SUD according to HUD’s definition in the point-in-time count, about a 1% decrease from 2019 (Figure 5). SMI and SUD often co-occur—about one-quarter of people with SMI also have an SUD—but HUD’s publicly available data do not report the overlap of these conditions. The prevalence of SMI and SUD represents an outsized share of the population of adults experiencing homelessness as about 5-6% of adults overall have SMI according to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and 3% of adults in the general population meet NSDUH criteria for severe SUD. While homelessness among adults increased sharply from 2019 to 2025, the share of adults with SMI or SUD changed little, suggesting the increase was not concentrated among people with behavioral health conditions, and likely reflects broader pressures, such as rising housing and living costs. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that a $100 increase in median rental price was linked to a 9% increase in estimated homelessness rate. Other research found increases in the number of people experiencing homelessness from 2019 to 2024 were more strongly associated with reductions in eviction moratoriums and climate-related events.