December 21, 2023

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released Part 1 of the 2023 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress. Part 1 of the AHAR provides Point-in-Time (PIT) estimates of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness on a single night across the United States, as well as the number of beds available to serve those experiencing homelessness. This year, all but seven of the 381 Continuums of Care (CoCs) conducted their annual PIT count during the last 10 days of January. In comparison, roughly one-third of the nation’s CoCs conducted the PIT count in late February or early March in 2022 after receiving waivers due to concerns of COVID-19.

Nationally, the PIT count found that 653,104 people experienced homelessness on a given night in 2023, which is the highest number of people reported since annual PIT reporting began in 2007. Of the total, approximately six in ten people experienced sheltered homelessness and the remaining four in ten people experienced unsheltered homelessness. The total number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023. Families with children experiencing homelessness rose by 16 percent, while individuals experiencing homelessness rose by 11 percent between 2022 and 2023.

In California, 181,399 people experienced homelessness on a given night in 2023, with 68 percent unsheltered.  California accounted for 28 percent of all people experiencing homelessness nationwide and 49 percent of all people experiencing unsheltered homelessness nationwide. California also accounted for 47 percent of the number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness nationwide, meaning they experienced homelessness for extended periods of time and have a disability. 

These numbers, while grim, further underscore the need for the AT HOME plan and the collective work that the state, counties, cities, and partner organizations are doing to serve unhoused individuals and address the root causes of homelessness. In addition, these PIT counts are of particular importance to counties as they will be used to determine the base funding allocations for Round 5 of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program. Counties, CoCs, and large cities are currently developing Regionally Coordinated Homelessness Action Plans as a part of the application process, which are due by March 27, 2024. The California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) will release the HHAP Round 5 final base allocations before February 2024 based on the numbers released through the 2023 AHAR Part 1. The 2023 PIT estimates for each of California’s 44 CoCs can be found in the resource links on HUD’s webpage.