More than 770,000 people were living in shelters or outside in January, according to an annual federal report on homelessness by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The number is up 18% from last year’s count — which had also jumped from the year before — and is the largest number since HUD started doing this report in 2007.
HUD released its report Friday, based on the January “point-in-time” survey in cities around the country. The results punctuated a trend advocates for homeless people and affordable housing have been highlighting.
“A lot of families, a lot of households, a lot of individuals are still struggling. I think we’re still in — for deeply poor people — a real recovery from the pandemic,” says Jeff Olivet, who until recently was executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness…