The Rise of the UnHoused Middle Class

A growing number of Americans are ending up homeless as soaring rents in recent years squeeze their budgets.

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country's unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said. 

Homelessness, long a problem in states such as California and Washington, has also increased in historically more affordable parts of the U.S.. Arizona, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas have seen the largest growths in their unsheltered populations due to rising local housing costs. 

That alarming jump in people struggling to keep a roof over their head came amid blistering inflation in 2021 and 2022 and as surging rental prices across the U.S. outpaced worker wage gains. Although a range of factors can cause homelessness, high rents and the expiration of pandemic relief last year contributed to the spike in housing insecurity, the researchers found. 

"In the first years of the pandemic, renter protections, income supports and housing assistance helped stave off a considerable rise in homelessness. However, many of these protections ended in 2022, at a time when rents were rising rapidly and increasing numbers of migrants were prohibited from working. As a result, the number of people experiencing homelessness jumped by nearly 71,000 in just one year," according to the report.

Rent in the U.S. has steadily climbed since 2001. In analyzing Census and real estate data, the Harvard researchers found that half of all U.S. households across income levels spent between 30% and 50% of their monthly pay on housing in 2022, defining them as "cost-burdened." Some 12 million tenants were severely cost-burdened that year, meaning they spent more than half their monthly pay on rent and utilities, up 14% from pre-pandemic levels

Rising housing costs, inflation, limited shelter availability are driving a new and complex form of homelessness

Hiding in plain sight amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life are a growing number of US people who temporarily and sometimes permanently live in their cars, vans and recreational vehicles in large cities and small towns across the country.

The mobile homeless, as they are dubbed, live in cramped conditions, often have breakfast in the front seat of their vehicle, wash and do their hair in public toilets, put on their clothes, paint on a smile and sometimes go to work.

It is estimated that more than 500,000 people in the United States were homeless on any single night last year and had nowhere to live. Of those, 40 percent lived on the street or in their cars, said the Annual Homeless Assessment Report published by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Many have not told their family, friends or co-workers of their plight, said case workers who deal with them daily. They often go quietly about their day, despite having no apartment or house to call home.

In a move aimed at helping this group, "safe parking lots" have sprung up in many places, including Duluth, Minnesota; several counties in California; Green Bay, Wisconsin; King County, Washington; and Denver, Colorado. They allow people to leave their car in a locked, monitored parking area so they can stay in it overnight. They must leave at 7 am the next day.

One woman aged 59 who did not want to be identified said she ended up in the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative after a divorce depleted her savings and she had a long stay in a hospital.

Unable to keep up with her rent, she lost the room she lived in after the owner sold the house. She scrambled to find another place but could not, she said.

So she put her belongings into storage and climbed into the one possession she had left, her car. However, there was more bad news: she had breast cancer.

To make ends meet the master's degree graduate became an Uber driver. Every morning she would gather her things from the car and put them into the storage unit, go to work and engage in chitchat with her passengers.

However, at night she would shower at a gym, she said, go to her storage locker to get her belongings back out and feel stressed out about how to keep her new life a secret from family and friends. She felt "ashamed and embarrassed", she said.

"I'm such a successful person, and here I am ending up homeless," she said in a testimonial for the US nonprofit group Safe Lot. "Having to keep a secret like that was very stressful."

She told of how others in the Safe Lot rallied to help her as she underwent radiation therapy because we "all looked after each other".

Life eventually got better when she secured a permanent apartment. She credits Safe Lot as the main reason she got "a chance to breathe".

Safe Lot, established in 2020, says it helps nearly 120 households a night. This includes individuals, couples and families in 13 Safe Lots across metropolitan Denver. Its funding comes from government contracts and foundation grants and a variety of other sources.

Terrell Curtis, executive director of the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative, said: "In Colorado, like most places, sleeping in a car isn't legal, so for those people who do, they are harassed at night or become victims of crime.

"And since it's illegal they are made to move along by police frequently. It is very difficult to get rest; 40 percent of the people we serve are working and need good sleep to keep their jobs as well as maintain reasonable health. The Colorado Safe Parking Initiative also offers case management services to support people in regaining stable housing, employment and healthcare."

In June Denver's city council approved $600,000 to create two new Safe Lots that the initiative will run.

Derek Woodbury, communications director for Denver's Department of Housing Stability, was instrumental in pushing for an update in the city's contract with the initiative and a budget increase.

Denver's very much a caring city and working hard to make progress in homelessness resolution," Woodbury said.

"We're doing all that we can to ensure that episodes of homelessness are experienced rarely, and where they are they're brief, one-time occurrences. We invest in shelter alternatives, and safe parking is an example."

Woodbury said Denver had been invested from President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Of 30 percent of people who stay at a Safe Lot in the City and County of Denver, one-third go on to live in permanent housing, he said.

The essential, free parking spaces, hosted by churches, if zoning laws allow, or in existing parking lots, also provide people with a much-needed warm shower, dinner from donated food and, importantly, someone to talk to. In extremely bad weather some offer a night in a motel.

Jesus Garcia, program coordinator for CAREavan, a safe parking program in Union City, Alameda County, California, has seen the look of relief in the eyes of individuals and families who arrive after living in a cramped car.

" (For these families) just having basic necessities, as far as restrooms and having a safe place to sleep at night (is vital).

"So, they can do what they need to do with the time without worrying about it at night by really having a safe place to sleep where they can rest, relax. This way they can attend their meetings and do what they need to be able to do to get out of a situation they are in.

"We realized ... some families (who) were attending some of our other programs... were sleeping in a vehicle and ... in an unsafe parking lot. And we just wanted a place for them to start sleeping. So that's why we started the program back in 2016."

Contrary to popular belief about who is homeless, Safe Lot case workers across the country said they see people "no one would ever expect to be homeless" arrive each night.

Many are educated, professional and middle class with a full-time job but no home. Some earn too much money to claim public assistance; others have exhausted the option of staying with family and friends.

Graham Pruss, an anthropologist and director of the National Vehicle Residency Collective, a network of vehicle residents, social service providers and legal experts that support people living in their vehicles, said: "A man reached out to me and was a community college professor in Southern California. He teaches 10 classes, he works. He has two master's degrees.

"He teaches at three different community colleges. He's an adjunct professor and he lives in a safe parking program because he doesn't make enough money to pay rent with all of his student loans."

The median housing rent nationwide was $2,011 a month.

Curtis of the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative said: "Housing prices far exceed affordability even for families earning more than 100 percent of the area median income."

Inflation has pushed up the price of food, stretching budgets further and leaving many people with poor credit and medical debts facing difficult decisions on housing.

"There are many people who live in vehicles but do not identify as homeless," Pruss said. "They see their vehicle as their home."

In most cities strict parking regulations mean a car must be moved at some points during the day and evenings. If it attracts many parking tickets it can be towed away.

Curtis said many municipalities have enacted zoning and right-of-way ordinances that intentionally make it difficult to use one's vehicle as shelter.

In Los Angeles the Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System, a nonprofit group, offers an all-inclusive agency for the homeless.

The group, founded by Mike Neely, a former Skid Row resident and homeless veteran, is partly funded by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Jaleah Nolan, case manager for safe parking at the Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System, helps single adults and families with storage, obtaining documents and setting up interviews with landlords. Clients can also get motor vehicle repairs once a year and, for those who stay, hygiene supplies, toilets, showers and housing support.

"LA is very big," Nolan said. "Homelessness is huge here. And I think safe parking is good because a lot of people don't really do well at shelters.

"A lot of times people have trauma at shelters. And a lot of times shelters don't have somewhere to park their car, their car is their storage... or their safe spot."

The program serves about 40 clients a night on three different lots, and about 30 percent have full-time jobs, Nolan said. There is also a security guard.

Los Angeles, known for its opulence and wealth in areas such as Bel Air and Beverly Hills, also has about 66,000 people who are homeless on any given night, with 39 percent said to be living in a vehicle.

From 2019 to 2022 the number of mobile homeless in Los Angeles rose from 16,500 to 19,400, the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies said. The first Safe Lot in the county opened in 2017; today the city has 17.

In Washington state, another area of the country blighted by homelessness, there are 12 Safe Lots. Seattle's 2022 budget included $15.4 million for new investments in homeless services, including $1.5 million for vehicle residency outreach and Safe Lots.

"There are a wide variety of people who are living in their vehicles," said Pruss of the National Vehicle Residency Collective.

"Rather than separating people based upon the type of vehicle or their perceived income levels, or their social status, or even their race, ethnicity, or gender, I think it is more helpful to understand how the use of the vehicle as housing is of benefit for the person. And how we as a society can lean into better support that in ways that is healthy, safe and beneficial to our total community."

Or at least, the city’s population of around 650,000 people is comparable to the number of people who experienced homelessness in America on one night in early 2023, according to the latest release of the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report.

The report and its corresponding data inform funding decisions for Congress and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It estimates that on a single night in January of 2023, roughly 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness in the U.S. The report’s data relies on volunteers, who manually canvas communities each January to survey homeless populations, as well as local outreach staff and estimates from shelters and other homelessness services and facilities.

While imperfect, the report’s point-in-time estimate has provided a picture of the country’s homeless population annually since 2007. The 2023 point-in-time count found the highest number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in the U.S. since the survey began, with an increase of more than 12% over 2022’s estimate. That equates to an additional 70,650 people experiencing homelessness year over year.

The report shows major cities are home to large shares of people experiencing homelessness, with nearly 1 in 4 members of the country’s total homeless population found in either New York City or Los Angeles alone, based on the 2023 count.

Chronic homelessness, in fact, has risen steadily since 2018, and increased nearly 30% between 2020 and 2023, which saw the highest number of individuals experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness – about 143,100 people – of any year since the survey began in 2007.

The majority of those experiencing chronic homelessness in 2023 also were unsheltered, according to the report, meaning they were sleeping in tents, on streets, in cars or other places "not meant for human habitation," rather than in a shelter or other form of temporary housing.

Despite more beds becoming available due to the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions in shelters, 40% of those experiencing homelessness overall were unsheltered in 2023, according to the 2023 estimates. And more than half of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the U.S. were in major cities.

Many of the 25 major U.S. cities with the highest rates of homelessness have seen their homeless populations grow, though seven did have smaller homeless populations in 2023 than they did in 2020. Eight of the top 25 cities are in California, with several in Texas also making the list.

These are the 25 major U.S. cities with the largest homeless populations, according to the 2023 point-in-time estimates and based on the geographic area covered by a corresponding range of homelessness services. Estimates often include surrounding or nearby areas as well, and may at times only include homeless people in shelters.

 25. Atlanta, Georgia

• Homeless Population: 2,679

• Estimated Rate of Homelessness: 5.4 per 1,000

• Change in Homelessness, 2020-2023: 17% decrease

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24. Fort Worth, Texas

• Homeless Population: 2,776

• Estimated Rate of Homelessness: 2.9 per 1,000

• Change in Homelessness, 2020-2023: 31% increase

23. San Antonio, Texas

• Homeless Population: 3,155

• Estimated Rate of Homelessness: 2.1 per 1,000

• Change in Homelessness, 2020-2023: 8% increase

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22. Houston, Texas

• Homeless population: 3,270

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 1.4 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 18% decrease
  

21. Minneapolis, Minnesota

• Homeless population: 3,312

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 7.8 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 9% increase
  

.20. Long Beach, California

• Homeless population: 3,447

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 7.6 per 1,000

Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 69% increase

19. Miami, Florida

• Homeless population: 3,657

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 8.1 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 3% increase
  

18. Dallas, Texas

Homeless population: 4,244Estimated rate of homelessness: 3.3 per 1,000Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 5% decrease

17. Fresno, California

• Homeless population: 4,493

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 8.2 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 23% increase
  

16. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Homeless population: 4,725

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 3.0 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 16% decrease
  

15. Washington, D.C.

• Homeless population: 4,922

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 7.3 per 1,000

Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 23% decrease

14. Boston, Massachusetts

• Homeless population: 5,202

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 8.0 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 15% decrease
  

13. Chicago, Illinois

• Homeless population: 6,139

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 2.3 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 14% increase
  

12. Portland, Oregon

• Homeless population: 6,297

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 9.9 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 51% increase
  

11. Las Vegas, Nevada

• Homeless population: 6,566

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 10.0 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 24% increase
  

10. San Francisco, California

• Homeless population: 7,582

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 9.4 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 7% decrease
  

9. Sacramento, California

• Homeless population: 9,281

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 17.6 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 68% increase
  

8. Phoenix, Arizona

• Homeless population: 9,642

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 5.9 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 30% increase
  

7. Oakland, California

• Homeless population: 9,759

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 22.7 per 1,000

Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 20% increase

6. San Jose, California

• Homeless population: 9,903

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 10.2 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 3% increase

5. Denver, Colorado

• Homeless population: 10,054

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 14.1 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 65% increase
  

4. San Diego, California

Homeless population: 10,264

Estimated rate of homelessness: 7.4 per 1,000

Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 34% increase

3. Seattle, Washington

• Homeless population: 14,149

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 18.9 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 20% increase
  

2. Los Angeles, California

• Homeless population: 71,320

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 18.7 per 1,000

• Growth in homelessness, 2020-2023: 12% increase
  

1. New York, New York

• Homeless population: 88,025

• Estimated rate of homelessness: 10.6 per 1,000

• Change in homelessness, 2020-2023: 13% increase