Biden aims to cut homelessness 25% by 2025

President Biden released a plan Monday that aims to reduce homelessness in the United States by 25 percent in the next two years.

The 100-plus-page plan, which officials said includes input from communities around the country and feedback from hundreds of unhoused people, comes as homelessness in the nation reaches crisis levels. New York’s mayor last week announced plans to force unhoused mentally ill people into treatment, while the mayor of Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency.

Released through the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the plan details that homelessness is rising after “steady declines” from 2010 to 2016. More than 1.2 million people experienced “sheltered homelessness” in 2020, the most recent year data was available.

By another measure, more than 580,000 people were homeless on a single night in January 2022, when the Department of Housing and Urban Development performed its annual “point-in-time count” — a method some advocates say underrepresents the number of unhoused people. In addition, according to the plan, more homeless people were unsheltered than sheltered for the first time since data collection began.

The plan set out how the Biden administration would combat homelessness by, among other measures, battling racial inequity, encouraging the construction of affordable housing, facilitating communication between federal and local governments, and preventing homelessness in the first place.

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