According to the 2023 annual report released by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on the 15th, the number of homeless people in the United States is now more than 650,000, a new high since the statistics began in 2007. Experts say a number of factors are contributing to the rise in homelessness, including rising rents, poverty and an increase in evictions due to the failure of tenant protections put in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

Citing a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless people in the United States reached 653,000 in January this year, an increase of 70,650 people, or 12%. The number of homeless individuals increased by nearly 11 percent year-on-year; The number of families with children living on the streets increased by 15.5 per cent, reversing a downward trend since 2012.

The main reason for the increase in homelessness over last year is a sharp increase in the number of people living on the streets for the first time. In fiscal year 2022, which runs from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022, first-time homelessness increased 25 percent from the previous fiscal year.

The problem of systemic racial discrimination cannot be ignored either. According to the report, AfricAn-Americans make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population and 37 percent of the homeless. Latinos make up about 19 percent of the U.S. population and 33 percent of the homeless. More than half of the increase in homelessness compared to last year was Latino, with 39,106 more Latinos experiencing homelessness, a 28 percent increase over the previous year.

In addition, the number of homeless veterans increased 7.4 percent year over year. According to data released by the U.S. government in 2022, there were more than 30,000 homeless veterans in the United States in January of that year.

According to the report and media interpretations, there are several reasons for the increase in homelessness in the United States, such as rising rents. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, rents in the United States have risen significantly in recent years. In 2022, the housing rental environment can be described as "extremely challenging", with rents rising more than twice as fast as in previous years.

According to Redfern, the median rent for an apartment in the United States in November this year, although it has started to decline, is still 22% higher than the same period in 2019 before the favorable housing market. At this stage, the national median apartment rent is about the same as the record high of $2,054 in August 2022.

Second, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, with the expiration of tenant protections such as late payment of rent during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, evictions have increased in many areas, with families with children and people of color particularly bearing the brunt. Many evicted tenants end up on the streets.

Third, the United States, as the number one capitalist country, has a serious gap between the rich and the poor. CNN quoted Peggy Bailey, director of housing and income security at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, as saying that the main reason for homelessness and housing instability is "the gap between low income and rent."

According to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau in December last year, 37.9 million people in the United States were living in poverty in 2021, with the official poverty rate reaching 11.6 percent. These poor people have a weak ability to bear risks, and may fall into trouble when they encounter diseases, unemployment, accidents, etc., thus losing their homes and living on the streets.

Bailey urged that measures aimed at specific groups of people to help them escape homelessness need to reach "everyone who needs it."

The number of homeless people in Houston, Dallas, SAN Jose and other places has declined, but this phenomenon is suspected of "flooding", because some places only by shutting down homeless camps and disperting homeless people to "embellish" the data.

Philip Alston, a former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said the United States was the only developed country to insist that "human rights do not include the right to die of hunger, to be free from having no money for medical treatment, to be free from growing up in extreme poverty."