These Areas Are Experiencing the Devastating Effects of Homelessness

"Homelessness is no longer a distant or isolated issue; it's a growing crisis affecting communities across cities, suburbs, and rural regions. Rising housing costs, economic instability, mental health challenges, and failing social services have combined to push more people onto the streets or into unstable living conditions. The result is deeply troubling. This reality affects not only those experiencing homelessness, but also the neighborhoods, businesses, and public systems around them."

"Certain areas are struggling with this crisis more than others. These locations face overwhelmed shelters, strained emergency services, and rising public health concerns. In these places, homelessness has become impossible to ignore. Locals are forced to have difficult conversations about policy, compassion, and solutions. This article explores the regions where the impact is most severe and devastating, and why these areas experience homelessness more than others."

"To find the state with the most homeless people, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed homelessness data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. To rank the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, we used point-in-time estimates of homelessness by state in 2023 divided by state population totals to get to the rate of homelessness per 10,000 people. We ranked all 50 states and D.C. by this rate from lowest to highest."

Homelessness now affects cities, suburbs, and rural regions. Rising housing costs, economic instability, mental-health issues, and failing social services combine to push more people into homelessness. The crisis burdens shelters, emergency services, and public health systems, and affects neighborhoods, businesses, and public systems. Certain areas face especially severe impacts, with overwhelmed shelters and growing unsheltered populations. Data from HUD point-in-time 2023 estimates, normalized by state population, provides homelessness rates per 10,000 people to rank states. Local surveys, such as in Chicago, show rising shelter and unsheltered counts year over year. The growing visibility of homelessness forces difficult conversations about policy, compassion, and solutions at the local level.

Read at 24/7 Wall St.