The Trump administration released a months-late report on Friday detailing the nation’s homelessness problem, with the data suggesting fewer Americans are living on the street or in shelters amid a crackdown by officials in major cities.
The report, finally made public after pressure from Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, found 745,642 people were homeless as compared to roughly 770,000 people in 2024, a 3% decrease. A majority of states still showed an increase, however, the report shows.
The annual count, considered the most comprehensive national tally of Americans experiencing homelessness, takes place on one night each year in January. On that night in 2025, HUD says 1,456,923 people were homeless or living in a taxpayer-funded or subsidized shelter.
HUD said the report’s figures show a need to change failed policies.
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“The data is clear that the status quo of ‘housing first’ has failed to meaningfully reduce homelessness, resulting in crisis levels of people living on the streets,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said in a statement. “HUD is restoring its programs to advance recovery and self-sufficiency and to ensure that taxpayer-funded benefits serve American families.”
The report still shows a marked increase – 27% – in homelessness since 2013, when HUD introduced its housing-first policy.
The report also found unsheltered homelessness has increased 36% since 2013 and chronic homelessness increased 81%.
National homelessness advocates say this year’s decrease is positive because thousands less Americans are sleeping on the streets. However, they attribute the drop to efforts made years ago under President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Homelessness is down because President Biden funded things that we know work, like housing and support,” Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center, told NOTUS in a statement.
“Sadly, the Trump administration is doing everything they can to backtrack on this progress,” Rabinowitz said. “Trump’s policies will make housing more expensive and make more people homeless and sick. Donald Trump wants to take us backwards, but most people know the truth: we need housing and support, not handcuffs and detention camps.”
HUD typically unveils the latest count of homelessness each year but had not made its 2025 data public until now, the latest in more than a decade, a NOTUS analysis showed.
President Donald Trump last year signed an executive order targeting homeless camps by threatening to cut grants to states or cities that didn’t tackle “urban camping,” loitering and “urban squatting.” The administration also delayed 2025 federal funding for organizations and shelters that support homeless Americans until a federal judge ordered the administration to disburse the funds.
Gillibrand had pressed Turner in a Senate hearing earlier this month to release the data.
“The delay is absurd and a complete disservice to the American people. Americans deserve transparency and accountability from their government, not excuses,” Gillibrand, told NOTUS in a statement. “I will keep pushing for answers from HUD leadership on how their supposed plans to tackle the housing crisis square with their deep cuts to housing programs.”
“It’s clear HUD was hiding the ball and not doing their job. This report wasn’t finalized overnight,” Gillibrand said.
Traditionally, HUD provides Congress with an Annual Homelessness Assessment Report, which estimates the number of people experiencing homelessness and the beds available to them nationwide.
At the hearing, Turner defended the department’s delay, citing litigation HUD has been involved in, last year’s government shutdown and the Biden administration.
From 2013 to 2018, HUD released its Annual Homeless Assessment Report and Point-in-Time count the same year. From 2019 to 2021 the report came at the latest three months into the next year. Then from 2022 to 2024 the report came the same year again.
As of 2026, the delay was the longest an administration has gone without issuing a report in more than a decade, the other three times the report came delayed also occurred during the first Trump administration.
Under Turner’s leadership, HUD has deprioritized housing first, a policy approach of providing permanent housing to people struggling with homelessness in the country regardless of their conditions. The department also shifted how federal funds are allocated to nonprofits that shelter homeless people.
Housing advocates say updated homeless data better equips nonprofits dedicated to serving unhoused individuals across the nation.
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