AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.The modest drop marked the first decrease in homelessness in nearly a decade. The Housing and Urban Development report was published months later than usual.Listen · 5:49 min A homeless encampment in Los Angeles. Though homelessness declined in 2024, it is still at unusually high levels by historical standards.Credit...Ariana Drehsler for The New York TimesMay 29, 2026Updated 10:01 p.m. ETAfter climbing to a record peak, homelessness fell modestly in the last year of the Biden administration, according to data released Friday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.While the decline of more than 3 percent marked the first drop in homelessness in nearly a decade, it still left homelessness levels unusually high by historical standards. Nearly 746,000 people were living in shelters and on the streets in January 2025 when President Trump took office, a 28 percent increase from three years earlier.Most researchers say that the surge in homelessness over the previous two years was largely driven by the influx of asylum seekers, some of whom have now found housing or left the country.But the rise coincided with increasing divisions over homelessness policy, and many Republicans, including Mr. Trump, have cited the high homelessness numbers to justify strict new measures like camping bans or forced treatment of mental illness or addiction. An executive order he issued last year demanding a policy overhaul cited the national count down to the digit.That made the new data showing a decline in homelessness, however modest, politically sensitive. The report was published months later than usual and released with no notice on a Friday afternoon.In January, The New York Times published a story, citing local data reported to the federal government but not released, that projected homelessness had fallen by 3 percent to 5 percent.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT