On a single night in January 2016, more than half a million people across the U.S. were homeless. That number is large (549,928 people) but it has declined substantially since 2010, when the Obama administration introduced Opening Doors, the nation’s first strategic federal plan to solve homelessness. The plan appears to be working.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development just released its 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Reportto Congress, which breaks down the results of a nationwide point-in-time estimate conducted in January. Agencies in some 3,000 cities counted individuals and families living in shelters, temporary housing, or outside shelters or housing.
Since 2010, the nation has seen double-digit drops in homeless families (23 percent), individuals experiencing chronic homelessness (27 percent), and veteran homelessness (47 percent). While some states, such as New York, saw increases in homelessness over this time period—especially over the last year—nationwide, the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2016 fell 14 percent since 2010.
[For more of this story, written by Kriston Capps, go to http://www.citylab.com/housing...-obama-trump/508223/]
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