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A shocking new report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) shows that homelessness has increased dramatically since the start of Joe Biden's term, another in the outgoing president's remarkable track record of failures. This is one sign.
Since 2007, HUD has annually released data providing official estimates of homelessness. This data is intended to show how many people are homeless in the United States each January, as well as provide researchers with a variety of demographic data and reports from field sources on the underlying causes of homelessness. That's what I mean.
In December, HUD reported that in January 2024, “771,480 people in the United States experienced homelessness.” HUD calls this the “highest number since data collection began.” (The first year of data provided in HUD's report is 2007.)
The left's homeless agenda has destroyed our cities. Help may come from unexpected sources
HUD reported that the number of homeless people reached 653,104 in 2023, the highest number ever recorded at the time.
According to HUD data, there were 580,466 homeless people in early 2020, the last year of the Trump administration. (Data for 2021 is incomplete due to the impact of COVID-19.)
This means homelessness has increased by more than 32% from 2020 to 2024.
These numbers become even more disconcerting when placed in their proper historical context. From 2013 to 2022, HUD's homeless estimates never exceeded 600,000 people.
In the eight years before Biden took office, the homeless population remained relatively stable, consistently hovering between 500,000 and 600,000 people.
The HUD report notes that men and boys are more likely to be homeless than women. Approximately 6 out of 10 homeless people in America are men.
Additionally, African Americans and white Americans are more likely to experience homelessness than other racial groups. Approximately 31% of the homeless population is considered African American, and 38% of the homeless population is white.
These numbers indicate that African American men are much more likely to be homeless than other demographics, given the differences in total population size of various racial groups in the United States.
There are many reasons why homelessness has increased under the Biden administration, many of which are a direct result of policy decisions made by the outgoing president.
First, home prices have risen at a breakneck pace under the Biden administration. The Washington Post reported that monthly rent increased by 19% from 2019 to 2024.
Similarly, the average sales price of homes sold in the U.S. rose from $396,900 in Q4 2020 to $501,100 in Q3 2024, the most recent year for which data is available. This is a 26% increase in just four years.
Although rents and home sales prices are affected by many factors, the driving force behind the rise is the macro-level inflation crisis caused by the Biden administration's unprecedented government spending and regulatory policies.
Mr. Biden and Congressional Democrats pumped trillions of dollars into the economy during Mr. Biden's term, keeping spending levels well above pre-pandemic levels. The additional spending was primarily due to new debt that was not offset by new taxes. This means that Mr. Biden has worked closely with Congressional Democrats to increase the money supply.
An increase in the money supply is not necessarily a bad thing. But if we rapidly and consistently increase the money supply through government inflationary policies and regulations that drive up costs, as Mr. Biden and his wife have done, we risk creating an inflationary crisis.
That's exactly what happened in large parts of the U.S. economy, including the housing sector.
Adding more dollars to the economy without adding more housing at a similar rate caused housing and rent prices to rise rapidly, and the prices of almost everything else to rise as well.
When housing costs rise, homelessness often increases with it.
But housing costs are not the only cause of homelessness. The other is the Biden administration's immigration policy.
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security reported earlier this month that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has had more than 11 million domestic encounters with illegal immigrants since fiscal year 2021.
This does not include the millions of people who entered the United States illegally during the same period but were not detected by CBP.
This wave of migrants is being driven by weak border and asylum seeker policies put in place by the Biden administration. These policies, and the resulting increase in illegal immigration, are putting tremendous stress on local resources such as housing and shelters.
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HUD, an agency of the Biden administration, acknowledged in a report that immigrants are one of the main causes of the recent increase in homelessness. HUD says natural disasters are also causing an increase in homelessness in some areas, particularly Hawaii.
HUD's study includes reports provided by a local homeless planning organization called Continuum of Care (CoC). HUD notes that “many CoCs that reported the largest increases in sheltered homelessness in 2024 reported increases in displaced persons due to natural disasters or migration. For example, in Hawaii, more than 5,000 people were homeless. ” points out. There were 13 more emergency shelters open due to the Maui fires, an increase due to an increase in the number of migrants and refugees seeking asylum. ”
The New York City Law Commission told HUD that nearly 88% of the increase in sheltered homelessness was directly attributable to the large increase in asylum seekers.
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Homelessness has reached crisis levels in the United States, and Biden's policies are a major cause. His harsh regulations and reckless spending have pushed housing costs to unsustainable levels, and his immigration policies have overwhelmed many cities' housing markets and homeless facilities.
To address these problems, President Trump must cut government spending, roll back regulations, and fix America's broken immigration system. He promised to do just that, but as the president-elect knows all too well, governing is much harder than campaigning.
