Inside America’s homelessness crisis through our reporters

The number of homeless people in America reached a record high last year, and there are no clear signs of this disturbing trend getting any better in 2024.

On a human level, the crisis has meant that as many as 650,000 people were left without shelter, a nearly 50 percent increase since 2015, a steady and dramatic rise since the US Department of Housing and Urban Development began tracking the crisis through the point-in-time survey to accurately count the number of people without shelter.

Our Report for America host newsrooms see this problem firsthand. For them, the housing crisis is a story that needs more public service journalism, demonstrated by the rising requests for corps members to cover this issue through the lens of poverty and other issues. Currently, nine of our corps members are dedicated to covering housing in their communities, with nine others covering the issue as part of a poverty beat. The issue also intersects with other topics like rural communities, immigration, economy, health and more, underlining the urgency and importance of it for residents and local governments.

The crisis is decades in the making, but a recent HUD report shows that the sharp rise is attributable to lack of affordable housing, the rising cost of rent and the end of federal programs to support families, such as pandemic era eviction moratorium. The end of COVID-era aid such as the expanded Child Tax Credit and stimulus checks has caused a spike in poverty as the poverty rate for children has doubled.

In this month’s On The Ground story map, our editor Alana Campbell has curated some of the best reporting across the country by our Report for America partner newsrooms. The story map is divided into three parts —The Housing Crisis, Homelessness, and Exploring Solutions. It delves into 17 stories reported by 11 Report For America corps members in states such as Texas, Colorado, California, Florida, New York, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Illinois, Connecticut, and Ohio which all rank among the worst in the country for available affordable rental homes.

As Alana shares, “Their stories explore various facets of the issue, from prolonged stays at underfunded homeless shelters and evicted families sleeping in cars for months on end to the struggles of those ineligible for public assistance and the daily uncertainties of living without shelter. Through thoughtful reporting and compassionate visual storytelling, the stories unveil how this issue is fracturing families, upending communities, and increasing obstacles for an already vulnerable population.”

We hope you will take the time to explore this map and see the outstanding work that our Report for America corps members are doing in their local communities. The enormous national and global problems that the country faces, particularly an issue as daunting as homelessness, can feel insurmountable, but we believe these issues are best explored on a local level by trusted local reporters.