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The United States saw an 18.1% increase in homelessness this year, a dramatic rise driven mostly by a lack of聽聽as well as devastating natural disasters and a聽聽in several parts of the country, federal officials said Friday.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said federally required tallies taken across the country in January found that more than 770,000 people were counted as homeless 鈥� a number that misses some people and does not include those staying with friends or family because they do not have a place of their own.

That increase comes on top of a聽, which HUD blamed on soaring rents and the end of pandemic assistance. The 2023 increase also was driven by people experiencing homelessness for the first time. The numbers overall represent 23 of every 10,000 people in the U.S., with Black people being overrepresented among the homeless population.

“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,鈥� HUD Agency Head Adrianne Todman said in a statement, adding that the focus should remain on 鈥渆vidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness.鈥�

Among the most concerning trends was a nearly 40% rise in family homelessness 鈥� one of the areas that was most affected by the arrival of聽. Family homelessness more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migrants including Denver, Chicago and New York City, according to HUD, while it rose less than 8% in the remaining 373 communities. Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% jump from last year.

California, the most populous state in the U.S., continued to have the nation’s largest homeless population, followed by New York, Washington, Florida and Massachusetts.

Washington’s homeless count tops 31,000 for the first time

Looking specifically at the numbers in Washington, the HUD report, titled The Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, puts the number of overall homeless people at 31,554. That’s up 12.5% from 2023’s number which was 28,036. While that percentage is lower than the overall national number, Washington is also one of only four states to have more than 30,000 homeless people overall. California and New York both have more than 150,000. Washington also has more homeless people than two states with significantly higher populations: Florida (31,362 homeless) and Texas (27,987 homeless). (A PDF of the HUD report can be seen . Links to additional resources can be viewed .)

In addition, 51% of those people who are homeless are considered unsheltered, which the HUD report defines as “people whose primary nighttime location is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for people (for example a car, public park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground).”

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The HUD report also called out that the states with the largest number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness in 2024 were California and Washington. In Washington, 49% of all individuals had experienced chronic patterns of homelessness. That’s the highest rate in the U.S., the report states.

An individual experiencing chronic homelessness, according to the federal government agency, refers to an individual person with a disability who has been continuously experiencing homelessness for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time experiencing homelessness on those occasions is at least 12 months.

The report contains some short state-specific sections that reveal additional context to the numbers. In the Washington section, the HUD report notes that between 2023 and 2024, Washington reported a 56% increase in the number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness (4,295 more).

Washington continuums of care (CoCs), defined by HUD as “local planning bodies responsible for coordinating the full range of homelessness services in a geographic area, which may cover a city, county, metropolitan area, or an entire state” that saw large increases in the number of people experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness attributed the increase to a lack of affordable housing, the report explains.

The report added that CoCs added housing costs continue to rise across Washington, leading to higher rates of homelessness overall.

HUD’s report also brought up another reason for the high numbers, noting that attempts to reach those in encampments and get them into some sort of shelter caused more identifications of chronic homelessness.

“Another factor that increased the count was associated with outreach efforts to identify people in encampments and move them into temporary shelter. This resulted in identifying more people staying in encampments as having chronic patterns of homelessness,” the HUD report reads.

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Another reason for the rise in homeless count: Disasters

Disasters also played a part in the rise in the count, especially last year’s catastrophic Maui wildfire, the聽聽in more than a century. More than 5,200 people were staying in emergency shelters in Hawaii on the night of the count.

“Increased homelessness is the tragic, yet predictable, consequence of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing,鈥� Renee Willis, incoming interim CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in a statement. 鈥淎s advocates, researchers, and people with lived experience have warned, the number of people experiencing homelessness continues to increase as more people struggle to afford sky-high housing costs.鈥�

Robert Marbut Jr., the former executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness from 2019 to 2021, called the nearly 33% increase in homelessness over the past four years 鈥渄isgraceful鈥� and said the federal government needs to abandon efforts to prioritize permanent housing.

“We need to focus on treatment of substance use and mental illness, and bring back program requirements, like job training,鈥� Marbut said in an email.

The numbers also come as increasing聽聽are taking a hard line against homelessness.

Communities 鈥� especially in Western states 鈥� have been enforcing bans on camping as public pressure grows to address what some residents say are dangerous and unsanitary living conditions. That follows a聽聽that found that outdoor sleeping bans don鈥檛 violate the Eighth Amendment. Homeless advocates argued that punishing people who need a place to sleep would criminalize homelessness.

There was some positive news in the count, as聽聽continued to trend downwards. Homelessness among veterans dropped 8% to 32,882 in 2024. It was an even larger decrease for unsheltered veterans, declining 11% to 13,851 in 2024.

“The reduction in veteran homelessness offers us a clear roadmap for addressing homelessness on a larger scale,鈥� Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said in a statement. “With bipartisan support, adequate funding, and smart policy solutions, we can replicate this success and reduce homelessness nationwide. Federal investments are critical in tackling the country鈥檚 housing affordability crisis and ensuring that every American has access to safe, stable housing.鈥�

Several large cities had success bringing down their homeless numbers. Dallas, which worked to overhaul its homeless system, saw a 16% drop in its numbers between 2022 to 2024. Los Angeles, which increased housing for the homeless, saw a drop of 5% in unsheltered homelessness since 2023.

The sharp increase in the homeless population over the past two years contrasts with the success the U.S. has been having for more than a decade.

Going back to the first 2007 survey, the U.S. made steady progress for about a decade in reducing the homeless population as the government focused particularly on increasing investments to get veterans into housing. The number of homeless people dropped from about 637,000 in 2010 to about 554,000 in 2017.

The numbers ticked up to about 580,000 in the 2020 count and held relatively steady over the next two years as Congress responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with聽, stimulus payments,聽聽and a temporary聽.

Contributing: Steve Coogan; The Associated Press