Veteran homelessness dropped only 1% during 2024

The number of homeless veterans decreased by only 387 people over the course of 2024, a smaller decrease than the change for the overall number of unhoused Americans, according to the newly released national homeless count.

On Friday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development released its findings from the 2025 point-in-time national homeless count. It found that overall homelessness in the United States dropped by 3%, with 745,652 people unhoused on a single night. However, veteran homelessness declined by just 1% between January 2024-January 2025, from 32,882 to 32,495. It is a notable flatlining of the decrease of homeless veterans. Between 2023 and 2024, HUD reported an 8% decline of the number of homeless veterans.

Top Stories This Week

The special ops replacement for the MK17 SCAR-H will fire 7.62 and 6.5mm ammo

By Jeff Schogol, Nicholas Slayton

Out of the 22 Navy officers just promoted to admiral, none were women

By Patty Nieberg, Matt White

24th Marine Expeditionary Unit deploys to Caribbean

The small drop in homelessness in America is the first in several years, and is still higher than in 2022. The report’s data still points to an overall gradual decline of veteran homelessness since communities began tracking that in 2009, and the number of unhoused veterans has dropped by more than half of the high of more than 74,000 homeless veterans in 2010.

13,518 people, or roughly four of every 10 veterans experiencing homelessness were also unsheltered. The decline in overall veteran homelessness was almost entirely driven by a decline in the number of unsheltered veterans, a decline of 333 people, HUD said. 266,320 of the overall number of homeless Americans are living on the street, the count found.

“Nearly half of all homeless veterans were in one of the nation’s 50 largest cities,” the report notes. “However, major cities accounted for a larger share of the unsheltered veteran population, while suburban areas comprised a larger share of the sheltered population.”

The 2025 homeless count also found an overall increase in the number of people experiencing chronic or long-term homelessness, although it did not say how many of the 155,750 chronically homeless individuals are veterans.

HUD released the report on Friday, more than a year after the count and after this year’s count was conducted nationwide. A HUD spokesperson told NBC News in late January that there is “no standard timeline for the release of the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR),” citing past examples. The 2024 count, released just before the end of that year and showing the changes over the course of 2023, found a historic high of 771,480 people experiencing homelessness at a given night.

The percent changes compare to January 2024 and reflect changes made over the rest of that year, rather than new policies or actions done in 2025. Since the 2025 count was conducted, the new administration has made several changes to its housing policy, including shifting away from housing first programs, which past reports and advocates have cited as helpful. This March, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Justice announced plans to start legal guardianship proceedings for veterans who “are unable to make their own health care decisions and have no family or legal representation to help them.” The announcement also said that veterans “who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness” are among those the initiative would focus on.