The 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) releases the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR) in two parts. Part 1 provides Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates, offering a snapshot of experiences of homelessness—both sheltered and unsheltered—on a single night. The PIT counts also provide an estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness within particular populations such as veterans and individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness. To be included in the PIT count, a person needs to meet the definition of experiencing homelessness used by HUD—which differs from the definition used by other agencies. HUD defines experiences of homelessness as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, meaning:

  • An individual or family with a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings such as a car, public park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground; or
  • An individual or family living in a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, State, or local government programs for low-income individuals).

Key Findings

The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was the highest ever recorded. A total of 771,480 people – or about 23 of every 10,000 people in the United States – experienced homelessness in an emergency shelter, safe haven, transitional housing program, or in unsheltered locations across the country. Several factors likely contributed to this historically high number. Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits. Additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, have exacerbated this already stressed system.

Nearly all populations reached record levels. Homelessness among people in families with children, individuals, individuals with chronic patterns of homelessness, people staying in unsheltered locations, people staying in sheltered locations, and unaccompanied youth all reached the highest recorded numbers in 2024.

People in families with children had the largest single year increase in homelessness. Between 2023 and 2024, 39 percent more people in families with children experienced homelessness. Overall, the number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 18 percent.

Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33 percent increase (or 32,618 more children) over 2023. Between 2023 and 2024, children (under the age of 18) were the age group that experienced the largest increase in homelessness.

Veterans were the only population to report continued declines in homelessness. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness declined by eight percent, or 2,692 fewer veterans. The number of veterans experiencing homelessness has declined by 55 percent since data collection about veteran homelessness began in 2009. The declines in sheltered and unsheltered experiences of homelessness were similar, (56% and 54%). These declines are the result of targeted and sustained funding to reduce veteran homelessness.

About one in every five people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 was age 55 or older. More than 104,000 people experiencing homelessness were aged 55 to 64, and just over 42,150 people were over age 64. Nearly half of adults aged 55 or older (46%) were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in places not meant for human habitation.

People who identify as Black, African American, or African continue to be overrepresented among the population experiencing homelessness. People who identify as Black made up just 12 percent of the total U.S. population and 21 percent of the U.S. population living in poverty but were 32 percent of all people experiencing homelessness. However, the share of people experiencing homelessness who identify as Black (of any ethnicity) decreased from 37 percent of all people experiencing homelessness in 2023.

View full report.