In 2024, homelessness in the U.S. hit the highest level in decades – with more than 770,000 people living outside. In addition, a recent Harvard study found that more than half of all Americans are just one missed paycheck from ending up on the streets.
We as a nation will not succeed in ending our homelessness crisis without taking urgent actions to stop homelessness before it happens.
The Right at Home: National Homelessness Prevention Partnership seeks to substantially reduce the number of individuals and families losing their homes, while laying the groundwork for a federal homelessness prevention strategy.
The Challenge
As rents spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, a record ½ of U.S. renters paid more than 30% of their income for rent and utilities. Nearly half of this group was severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50% of their income.
These rent burdens are even worse for extremely low income (ELI) households – which represent nearly 1 out of 4 renter households, and face the greatest risk for homelessness. 87% of ELI renters are rent-burdened and 74% are considered severely-rent burdened.
And the research is clear: numerous studies have shown that when housing costs go up in a community, so do rates of homelessness, making it imperative that we take urgent action to help more of our rent-burdened households cope with rising rents.