The COVID-19 pandemic took an immense toll on the lives of most Americans. Still, for those already experiencing homelessness or housing and economic insecurity, the challenges presented by the public health crisis were nearly impossible to escape. For unhoused people, emergency shelters, which once promised at least temporary refuge from the elements, became sources of danger as crowded spaces transformed into infection vectors.
In major cities, in particular, already-limited shelters began further reducing their capacity as COVID-19 transmission among residents soared. Roughly 613 unhoused New Yorkers died between July 2019 and June 2020, an increase of 52% from the year before. In San Francisco, the number of deaths of people experiencing homelessness more than doubled from March 2020 to March 2021.
While these chilling numbers might have predicted a spike in unhoused people in shelters in 2021, national and state-level data tell a somewhat different story. The overall number of sheltered unhoused people—meaning people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens—decreased across the country by nearly 8%, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Possible reasons for the drop vary from robust government interventions like stimulus payments, unemployment benefits, and the eviction moratorium to other factors like unhoused people avoiding shelters due to health risks.
Despite the overall decrease in sheltered homelessness, the issue of homelessness “remains an urgent crisis,” according to HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. Fourteen states recorded an increase in their sheltered homeless population. The same root causes of homelessness persist, and the pandemic exacerbated many. Currently, no state has an appropriate supply of affordable housing available for the lowest-income renters—the estimated national deficit is 7 million homes. And unhoused people in rural areas can face what is known as “service deserts,” where a lack of shelters and housing assistance creates even more hardship.
To better understand what’s behind the increase in sheltered homelessness in 14 states, Stacker examined data from HUD’s annual Homeless Assessment Report and tracked how homelessness rates changed from 2020 to 2021, the latest data available. States that recorded an increase in sheltered homelessness were placed in order of smallest to largest percentage increase.
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