A recent study by Harvard's Joint Centre for Housing Studies, released on January 25, sheds light on the growing homelessness crisis in the United States, attributed to the financial strain induced by soaring rents in recent years. The research estimates that in January 2023, approximately 653,000 individuals reported being homeless—an alarming increase of around 12% from the same month in the previous year and a staggering 48% surge since 2015.
Harvard academics highlight that this marks the largest one-year growth in the nation's homeless population on record. While homelessness has long been a concern in states like California and Washington, the issue has now expanded into previously more affordable areas of the country.
States experiencing the most significant increases in homelessness include Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas, primarily due to escalating local housing expenses.
The study identifies 2021 and 2022 as particularly challenging years, witnessing alarming rises in the number of people struggling to afford housing. During this period, nationwide rental costs outpaced increases in worker wages. The researchers pinpoint high rents and the expiration of pandemic assistance as major contributors to the surge in housing insecurity.
"In the first years of the pandemic, renter protections, income supports, and housing assistance helped prevent a significant rise in homelessness.
However, many of these protections ended in 2022, coinciding with rapid rent increases and a growing number of individuals prohibited from working. Consequently, the number of people experiencing homelessness surged by nearly 71,000 in just one year," notes the report.
Rent in the United States has steadily increased since 2001, and the researchers reveal that, in 2022, half of all American households, irrespective of income level, spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly income on housing.
This categorizes these households as "cost-burdened." Significantly, over 12 million renters faced substantial cost burdens, indicating that more than half of their income went towards monthly rent and utility bills—a 14% increase from pre-pandemic levels."
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