Closer Look at Homelessness in the United States

Over half a million people go homeless every night in the United States. Homelessness almost always involves people facing desperate situations and extreme hardship. Chapter 1 (i) describes how homelessness varies across States and communities in the United States; (ii) analyzes the major factors that drive this variation; (iii) discusses the shortcomings of previous Federal policies to reduce homeless populations; and (iv) describes how the Trump Administration is improving Federal efforts to reduce homelessness. The primary objectives of chapter 2 are to (1) identify market factors that have established effects on homelessness, (2) construct and evaluate empirical models of community-level homelessness, (3) use these models to identify and analyze relationships within subgroup populations of local markets, and (4) assess the feasibility of conducting future research to support local communities' efforts to prevent and end homelessness. People experiencing unsheltered homelessness may perceive staying in an encampment as a safer option than staying on their own in an unsheltered location or in an emergency shelter; however, encampments can create both real and perceived challenges for the people who stay in them as well as for neighbors and the broader community. Chapter 3 documents what is known about homeless encampments as of late 2018. Chapter 4 is a copy of the Ending Homelessness Act of 2019.