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A shocking new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows this homelessness has increased dramatically since the beginning of Joe Biden’s term, another sign of the outgoing president’s incredible failures.
Since 2007, HUD has published data each year that provide an official estimate for homelessness. The data seeks to show how many people are homeless in America in January of each year, as well as provide researchers with a variety of demographic data and reports from field sources about possible causes of homelessness.
In December, HUD reported that in January 2024, “771,480 people experienced homelessness in the United States.” HUD notes that this is “the highest number since data collection began.” (The first year of data in the HUD report is 2007.)
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In 2023, HUD reported that the number of homeless people reached 653,104, the highest number on record at the time.
HUD data shows homelessness it was 580,466 in early 2020, Trump’s last year in office. (Due to COVID-19, the data for 2021 is not complete.)
This means that from 2020 to 2024, homelessness has increased by more than 32%.
These figures become even more troubling when placed in their true historical context. From 2013 to 2022, HUD’s homeless estimates never once exceeded 600,000.
Homelessness remained relatively stable for the eight years before Biden took office, constantly hovering between 500,000 and 600,000.
HUD’s report states that men and boys are more likely to be homeless than women. About six out of ten American homeless people are men.
In addition, African Americans and white Americans are more likely to be homeless than other racial groups. About 31% of homeless people are believed to be African American and 38% of homeless people are believed to be white.
These figures show that when differences in the overall population size of different racial groups in the United States are taken into account, African American men are much more likely to be homeless than other demographic groups.
There are many reasons why homelessness has increased under the Biden administration, and many of them are the direct result of policy decisions made by the outgoing president.
First, the cost housing has grown at breakneck speed under Biden. The Washington Post reports that from 2019 to 2024, the monthly rent increased by 19 percent.
Similarly, the average sales price of a home sold in the United States rose from $396,900 in the fourth quarter of 2020 to $501,100 in the third quarter of 2024, the latest year for which data is available. That’s a 26% increase in just four years.
Although rents and sales prices are affected by a number of factors, the driving force behind the increase is a macro-level inflationary crisis caused by unprecedented government spending and the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda.
Biden and congressional Democrats have poured trillions of dollars into economy during Biden’s tenure, keeping spending levels well above pre-pandemic levels. The additional spending was largely the result of new borrowing that not compensate with new taxes. This means that Biden, working closely with congressional Democrats, has increased the money supply.
An increase in the money supply is not always a bad thing. But when you increase the money supply quickly and consistently, as Biden did, and combine that increase with inflationary government programs and regulations that raise costs, you risk triggering an inflationary crisis.
This is exactly what happened in most of the US economy, including the housing sector.
Adding more dollars to the economy without increasing housing at a similar rate has sent housing prices and rents soaring, along with the prices of almost everything else.
When housing costs rise, homelessness it often increases with it.
However, housing costs are not the only explanation for the rise in homelessness. The second is the immigration policy of the Biden administration.
The U.S. Homeland Security Committee reported earlier this month that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has had more than 11 million encounters with immigrants who are in the country illegally since fiscal year 2021.
This does not include the millions of other people who entered the United States illegally during the same period but were not caught by CBP.
This wave of immigration was caused by the weak border and asylum policies put in place by the Biden administration. These policies and the associated increase in illegal immigration have placed enormous stress on local resources, including housing and shelters.
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In its report, HUD, an agency in Biden’s own administration, acknowledges that immigration is one of the primary causes of the recent increase in homelessness. HUD says natural disasters have also caused an increase in homelessness in some regions, particularly Hawaii.
The HUD study includes reports from local homelessness planning authorities called the Continuum of Care (CoC). HUD notes that “in 2024, many of the care centers that reported the largest increase in sheltered homelessness reported experiencing an increase from people displaced by natural disasters or immigration. For example, in Hawaii, more than 5,000 people were to emergency shelter due to Maui fires Another 13 CoCs indicated an increase due to an increase in immigrants or refugees seeking asylum.”
The CoC for New York City told HUD that nearly 88% of the increase in sheltered homelessness is directly due to a significant increase in asylum seekers.
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Homelessness in the United States has reached crisis levels, and Biden’s policies are largely to blame. His high regulations and reckless spending have driven housing costs to unsustainable levels, and his immigration policies have swamped many of the city’s real estate and homeless facilities markets.
To fix these problems, President Trump must cut government spending, roll back regulations and fix America’s broken immigration system. He promised to do just that, but governing is much harder than campaigning, as the future president well knows.
