HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report provides estimates of the number of homeless persons from a point-in-time count on a single night in January 2010 and 12-month data from the Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) on the sheltered homeless.  Key findings for 2010 are:

·         The number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night increased by 1.1% over the last year: from 643,067 in January 2009 to 649,917 in January 2010.  Increases were due to increased numbers of unsheltered homeless persons.

·         A total of 79,446 family households, including 241,951 persons in families, were homeless on a single night in January 2010.  Nearly 80% of families were sheltered and 21% were unsheltered.

·         More than 1.59 million people spent at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing from October 2009 to September 2010, an increase of 2.2% from 2009.

·         Close to two-thirds of sheltered persons were individuals (65%) and one-third were persons in families (35%).

·         There were almost 94,000 more sheltered homeless persons in families in 2010 as there were in 2007, and almost 72,000 fewer sheltered homeless individuals.

More data on homelessness in the United States.