Breaking Down the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Key Takeaways
- newbeginningshealth
- Dec 29, 2024
- 2 min read
On December 27, 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR). The AHAR is a report that HUD provides to the U.S. Congress each year to outline the current state of homelessness, including information regarding demographics, the availability of housing, and possible solutions, both nationally and at the state level.
Overall, there has been an 18.1% increase in homelessness in the United States this year. In Texas specifically, the increase from 2023 to 2024 was 2.2%, less than the national average but not yet in the negatives. Despite this increase in the past year, however, Texas is known as one of the states doing the most to combat homelessness. In fact, this work has led to a 29.7% decrease from 2007 to present. A state-by-state breakdown is shown below.
The age groups experiencing homelessness most this year are those under the age of 18 (19.2% of people experiencing homelessness) and those 35 to 44 (19.9%). The below chart demonstrates the percentages.
Regarding the homeless status of different race and ethnic groups, those who identified as White (38.3%), Black, African American, or African (31.6%), and Hispanic/Latina/e/o (30.6%) faced the highest rates. See the below chart for a deeper dive.
A large subset of the homeless population, especially in Texas, is veterans. Texas alone accounts for 6% of all veterans experiencing homelessness in the United States. However, the state is aware of and focused on this problem, with a 10% decrease in its homelessness population of veterans the past year. The decrease is in most part due to the Department of Veterans Affairs' programs aimed to place veterans in permanent housing. This success indicates that similar programs may also work to place other subsets of the homeless population.
To read more, the 2024 AHAR can be found here.
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