AEI’s Kevin Corinth breaks down the latest number on one of Biden’s most shameful legacies: the flooding of our once-great cities with homeless people:
Homelessness grew by a record 18% annually in 2024, following a then record 12% increase in 2023. As shown in the figure below, the recent spike in homelessness is unprecedented. Going back 17 years since national homeless counts began, homelessness never before grew by more than 3% in a single year…
The main reason homelessness grew so quickly over the past two years is the influx of migrants into the United States who have overwhelmed homeless shelters in a handful of areas. Sheltered homelessness grew by just under 150,000 people over the past two years…
From 2022-2024, the areas with the largest increases in sheltered homelessness were places recognized as taking in large numbers of migrants, including New York City (77,352), Chicago (14,590), the Massachusetts “Balance of State” Continuum of Care (8,100), and Metropolitan Denver (6,556). The increase in sheltered homelessness in these four areas totaled approximately 107,000, or 72% of the total increase in the United States from 2022-2024.
