Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Latest Data: 2023
Release Timing: December
Frequency: Annual

The Homeless Individuals measurement utilizes a point in time (PIT) methodology to provide national estimates of homeless individuals in each city or state during the last ten days of the month of January each year.  A point-in-time count is described by the National Alliance to End Homelessness as "an unduplicated count on a single night of the people in a community who are experiencing homelessness that includes both sheltered and unsheltered populations."  National Alliance to End Homelessness: WHAT IS A POINT-IN-TIME COUNT?  

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), this data comes from Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Programs Homeless Populations and Subpopulations Reports, which "provide counts for sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons by household type and subpopulation, available at the national and state level, and for each CoC." 

HUD notes the following:  "HUD has conducted a limited data quality review but has not independently verified all of the information submitted by each CoC. The reader is therefore cautioned that since compliance with these standards may vary, the reliability and consistency of the homeless counts may also vary among CoCs. Additionally, a shift in the methodology a CoC uses to count the homeless may cause a change in homeless counts between reporting periods. These reports are available starting in 2005."

The numbers for 2021 are much lower than before or after COVID.  HUD explained it this way: 

COVID did impact the counts in 2021. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, HUD encouraged communities to determine whether conducting an unsheltered PIT count posed a high risk of exacerbating COVID-19 transmissions, given the lack of widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines at the time. Many CoCs chose to not conduct an unsheltered PIT count because their capacity to conduct counts was limited due to other pandemic-response efforts and the risk of transmitting COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness, homeless assistance staff, and volunteers.

You can read more about this year in the 2021 AHAR: Part 1 - PIT Estimates of Homelessness in the U.S. report: 2021 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress: Part 1 Point in Time Estimates of Sheltered Homelessness (huduser.gov)