The Washington Post · on a Washington Post review of homelessness spending in 12 cities
The Post reviewed the budgets of 12 U.S. cities with large homeless populations and found combined spending on homeless services rose more than 75 percent over the past five years. The piece opened at Phoenix's Safe Outdoor Space, a 200-tent site the Post said costs the city about $6.5 million a year, or $27,000 per structure, to operate for about 300 people.
Phoenix's city council approved a $5 million master-leasing pilot on Sept. 23, 2026.
Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing data showed that of 345 adults and families placed through the Large Vehicle Refuge Permit Program between November 2025 and September 2026, 115, one third, were housed outside San Francisco city limits. About 80 percent of placements used federally funded rapid-rehousing vouchers that taper off over two years, and the share of all such voucher holders housed outside the city rose from 22 percent in 2021 to 58 percent this year. About 500 vehicles housed people when Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the two-hour parking limit in July 2025; the department said placements are generally within about 50 miles.
The two-hour limit on vehicles over 7 feet tall or 22 feet long has been enforced since November 2025, with six-month temporary permits offered to RV residents who agreed to give up their vehicles.
Maricopa County had confirmed 230 heat-related deaths in 2026 as of the report, a 60% increase over the same point last year, with another 567 deaths still under investigation. County Chief Medical Examiner Jeff Johnston said the 2023 record of 645 will likely stand but 2026 could be the second- or third-highest year. Preliminary data showed 34% of this year's heat deaths occurred indoors, up from about 24% over the prior three years; early county data showed people experiencing homelessness may account for a smaller share of this year's heat deaths than in previous years, and the Phoenix City Council approved more than $5 million for heat relief this year.
Heat deaths in Maricopa County fell 30% in 2025 from the prior year.
The elected members of the Homelessness Response System's governing committee voted Friday to reduce the number of people homeless in Multnomah County by 10% by June 2028, which the Oregonian reported is the first numerical target of its kind in at least a decade. The package also set goals to cut unsheltered homelessness 8% and move 12,350 people into housing over two years, which deputy director Ryan Deibert said would require housing 27% more people than in the prior two years and maintaining about $35 million in one-time city and county funding. Mayor Keith Wilson cast the lone no vote, calling the goals "a good starting point" that he said did not reflect the urgency of the crisis.
The goals passed 4–1, with Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner Shannon Singleton, Gresham Mayor Travis Stovall and Councilor Eric Zimmerman in favor and Wilson opposed; the target and the current estimated total of about 14,500 people are countywide, not city-only.
Los Angeles Fire Department records obtained by ABC7 show 12,241 fires classified as "Homeless or Encampment Related" from January 1 through September 20, about 6% fewer than the same period last year and an average of 47 a day. More than 10,000 were trash fires; the analysis counted 189 vegetation or brush fires, 173 vehicle fires and 153 structure fires, with concentrations along the 10 Freeway corridor and in Skid Row. Mayor Karen Bass's office said in a statement that she has removed more than 140 encampments and that encampment-fire calls are down by more than 800 from this time last year.
ABC7's April analysis of the same LAFD data put the 2025 total at 16,982 homeless-related fires through mid-December, up from 7,165 in 2020.
Multnomah County's Homeless Services Department said it will revise its by-name list so that about 3,500 fewer people are counted as currently homeless, lowering the May figure of 18,000 by nearly 20%. Deputy director Anna Plumb called it "a data clean-up" that does not mean those people were housed; the largest change shortens the inactivity window before someone drops off the list from 90–180 days to 60–90 days, on the advice of the consultant Community Solutions. The county said the new method will be applied retroactively to January 2024 and take effect in the next month or so.
The by-name list launched in April 2025; program manager Lori Kelley said the shorter inactivity window accounts for most of the reduction.
In a "Straight Talk" interview, Mayor Keith Wilson said the city "had always expected to flex down" after opening 1,500 shelter beds in his first year and that "the measure is how many beds we have empty," stating the city has empty beds nightly. Wilson said a central-city count last week found tent encampments down 93% from 2022 and zero RVs on the Sunday night count. A city spokesperson said six city-run overnight shelters remain open, including two in Old Town with beds generally available.
An Urban Institute report found nearly 22 percent of middle-income renters said they could not pay the full amount of rent when it was due at least once in 2025, up from about 14 percent the year before — the largest increase of any income bracket in the institute's annual Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey. Nearly 28 percent of lower-income renters reported being unable to pay for housing sometime during 2025, up from around 24 percent in 2019, and about 7 percent of the highest-bracket renters missed at least one payment. Co-author Samantha Batko said the middle-income shift raises "potential implications for inflow to homelessness."
The Urban Institute defines middle-income renters as adults making between $31,300 and $62,600 for a single-person household or between $53,300 and $106,600 for a family of three.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan announced city data showing the unsheltered population fell 32% over 18 months, from about 5,400 people in February 2025 to about 3,700 in August 2026, measured by a new model that uses 15 data points and can be run at least quarterly. Mahan attributed the decline to encampment cleanups, no-re-encampment zones and emergency housing alternatives; an advocate quoted in the story questioned the claims.
The city's model estimated 1,500 more unsheltered individuals than the county's point-in-time count.
The Census Bureau's annual Current Population Survey release put the official 2025 poverty rate at 10.2 percent, down half a percentage point and the lowest on record, while the supplemental poverty measure was essentially unchanged at 13.1 percent. Real median household income rose 2.6 percent to a record $87,460. Researchers quoted by Stateline said the 2025 figures predate cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other benefits enacted in last year's tax and spending law.
The data cover calendar 2025 and do not reflect safety-net cuts taking effect in 2026.
Princeton University's Eviction Lab presented data September 10 at the Atlanta History Center showing metro Atlanta landlords filed 140,000 eviction cases in 2025, which researchers said is more than three times the national average and the highest rate of any major U.S. metro. About 31,000 filings occurred within the City of Atlanta, one for every four renter households, and researcher Peter Hepburn said Atlanta's 25% filing rate compares with 5% in New York and 9% in Houston, Nashville, and Jacksonville. Eviction Lab found 95% of cases are filed over non-payment, with the typical Atlanta tenant one month behind on rent versus two months in Minneapolis and Kansas City.
About 65% of metro Atlanta eviction filings are ultimately dismissed by landlords after being paid, and about 25% end in default judgments against tenants who do not appear in court, per Eviction Lab.
Portland State University's Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative and the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health released the final installment of a study of how people navigate homelessness and homeless services in Multnomah County, combining 541 surveys with 29 journey-mapping interviews co-designed with a committee of people with lived experience. The survey phase found 98% of unhoused participants want permanent housing, and more than 30% of interview participants said the death of a loved one directly or indirectly contributed to their housing loss. The report lists six action priorities, including expanding affordable housing diversity and preventing homelessness before it occurs.
The study's first installment, based on the 541 surveys, was released in April 2026.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections reported that 57% fewer people are leaving prison into homelessness since 2021, when the state began sending $500,000 per year to the DOC for homelessness prevention. The program pays initial rental costs at halfway houses, sober homes, and apartments; program lead Jennifer Abbas said the DOC housed around 800 formerly incarcerated people last year.
The figure comes from the DOC's annual report on the program, funded at $500,000 annually since 2021.
Bipartisan Policy Center · on analysis of HUD's 2025 Point-in-Time count data
The Bipartisan Policy Center published an analysis of HUD's 2025 Point-in-Time count, which found 745,652 people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2025, roughly 3% below the record 771,480 counted in 2024. The analysis noted chronic homelessness rose to a record 155,750 people, up 2% from 2024, while veteran homelessness reached its lowest level on record and family homelessness fell 11%.
HUD released the 2025 AHAR Part 1 PIT estimates on May 29, 2026.