Notes

How can you keep on moving. It’s hard to read the news without reading something about a crisis; it can feel a bit like hearing wolf. But the United States is in the grip of a homelessness crisis. Last year, there were some 70,000 more homeless people in America than there were in 2022—more than 650,000 in total. Today, Dennis Culhane explains why U.S. homelessness fell in the years after 2008’s Great Recession—and then why it started trending up again. The recent spike, Culhane says, has been largely on account of immigration. “… 75% of last year’s increase was in just four jurisdictions: New York, Massachusetts, Chicago, and Denver”—where Texas’ Governor Greg Abbott bussed tens of thousands of migrants who’d come into the country over its southern border—overwhelming existing shelters. But there’s more to it than that—a slate of reasons why U.S. homelessness programs could fare much better than they do against homelessness itself.

—Gustav Jönsson