Homelessness affects communities across the country, from urban to suburban to rural areas, and has worsened as the affordable housing supply has grown increasingly constrained. The number of individuals experiencing homelessness reached a record high in 2024, with an 18% increase over the previous record set in 2023. Continuum of Care representatives, who are part of the designated local or regional organization funded through HUD to lead the community- wide response to homelessness, cite the expiration of eviction moratoria and pandemic rental assistance, increased migration, and natural disasters (such as the Maui wildfires and Hurricane Helene) as significant contributing factors. HUD’s 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report revealed that one in three individuals experiencing homelessness meets HUD’s definition of chronically homeless, reaching an all-time high in the chronically homeless population since data collection began.

The inflow of people entering homelessness shows little sign of slowing. The re-housing process is facing bottlenecks, with shelter systems unable to provide enough support despite continued increases in the number of shelter beds available. According to HUD’s System Performance Measures, the national average length of time homeless ranged from 156 days to 193 days between 2019 and 2023. In 2023, 18.7% of individuals or families who exited to permanent housing experienced subsequent returns to homelessness. The shortage of affordable rental housing continues to compound the homelessness crisis, and with shelter spaces in short supply or with eligibility restrictions that make them inaccessible for some, many people are forced into unsheltered homelessness or unsafe accommodations. Furthermore, funding remains a major challenge for local communities addressing homelessness. Only one in four eligible households receives a Housing Choice Voucher, while rising rental and construction costs have outpaced available resources, meaning that funding streams remain insufficient to address the entirety of the challenge. Furthermore, increasing the affordable housing supply alone would not solve homelessness, as many who experience homelessness require supportive services.

The recent Supreme Court case City of Grants Pass v. Gloria Johnson, which ruled that the City of Grants Pass had the authority to pass laws making it illegal to sleep outside, has elevated the challenges associated with unsheltered homelessness. In the wake of this decision, over 100 cities have criminalized people sleeping outside, even when they have nowhere else to go. These laws span rural, suburban, and urban areas across states from California to West Virginia. Criminalization of homelessness is increasing despite ample evidence that punitive approaches often cost more and prove less effective than providing housing and services to those experiencing homelessness.

As the nonprofit Community Solutions emphasizes, a major problem with current homelessness response strategies in many communities is that accountability is dispersed across numerous agencies and organizations—no single actor is fully accountable for solving homelessness. While Continuums of Care (CoC) have the formal responsibility of coordination and strategic planning for communities, organizations within a CoC often maintain siloes focused on their specific programs. This siloed ecosystem often lacks a clear objective — such as achieving functional zero homelessness. Additionally, the yearly Point-In-Time (PIT) count of people experiencing homelessness is not specific enough to enable targeted action given that the people experiencing homelessness differs each night. These challenges with organization, accountability, and data have led to a broken re-housing system that fails to outpace the inflow of people into homelessness.

Though federal government funding and HUD systems undergird the homelessness response, localities must take responsibility for implementing solutions within that federal system and their local context; this takes on heightened importance as of the writing of this tool there are threats to those federal funding sources. In recent years, mayors in Denver and Cleveland, among others, have campaigned on this issue, bringing necessary attention and prioritization to developing solutions, and have found success with the Housing Command Center model.