The number of people experiencing homelessness in the United States fell more than 6% in 2025 — roughly 49,000 fewer people — the second straight annual decline after years of record highs, according to NPR.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner credited border enforcement and efforts to get "criminal illegals" off the streets with a "historic decrease in homelessness" in a press release announcing the results of the annual count. The agency had not yet posted a detailed report. A second analysis of the same count, commissioned by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, found a similar decline but credited different reasons for it.
Both analyses found nearly 700,000 people still living in shelters or on the streets, significantly more than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration pointed to its immigration policies, noting that New York, Chicago, Boston and Denver all saw surges of asylum seekers at shelters during the Biden administration. Devon Kurtz, public safety policy director at the Cicero Institute, said those four cities "have driven half of the drop most recently."
Ann Oliva, chief executive of the homelessness alliance, said programs that get people off the street without preconditions were a big part of the decline, especially among veterans, whose homelessness fell more than 7% last year. She said more permanent housing is needed for people who are chronically homeless, a group that saw a small uptick.