A flood of illegal immigrants into the US has led to the country's highest number of homeless people since such data was first recorded, and cities are having to dip into their coffers for shelters, a report says.
At least 550,000 people were reported as homeless in January — the same month that saw the highest number of people ever crossing the border into the US. According to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
The outlet reported that this alarming number of homeless people is at least 10% higher than in January 2023, which is the highest annual figure since 2007, when the government began reporting its own statistics.
Last January's numbers are likely even higher, since not every city with a significant homeless population, including the Big Apple, has yet to report their figures to the government.
Given this trend, the country is on track to surpass the historic dismal U.S. homelessness figure of 653,000 by 2023, the report said.
The number of homeless people has surged, as has the number of migrants crossing the border illegally and then seeking asylum and being bused to cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston and Denver, which is straining government coffers and fueling increases in crime and unemployment. gang violence On the streets,
Reports from Massachusetts showed that nearly half of the more than 7,000 families in the state's family shelters in January were migrants. The state expects to spend more than $1 billion on housing migrants this fiscal year, the Journal reports.
More than seven out of 10 homeless people in the city of Chicago were migrants, whose numbers on the streets and in shelters tripled to more than 18,800 that month.
In Denver, where migrant gangs running mercilesslyIn 2014, the new wave of outsiders caused the city's homeless population to increase by a staggering 42%.
The numbers of migrants crossing the border and travelling by bus have fallen since their peak earlier this year.
The report also blames rising fentanyl use, rising housing and rental prices and the expiration of pandemic-era tax credits for potentially pushing families out of their homes and onto the streets.
California is struggling to shelter the largest homeless population in the United States — even Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom pressure cities To vacate the camps.
There will be more than 180,000 homeless people in that state by 2023, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
HUD has not released its official report for 2024.
The journal hopes that its own calculations, done with the help of 250 organizations across the country, will be even higher — and more accurate.
“(HUD’s estimates) are widely considered to be underestimates that can be affected by the number of volunteers or bad weather,” the Journal reported.
