Housing Policy

Fewer Migrants, Fewer Homeless

The rare reported fall in the nation's homeless population is mostly the result of the ebbing migrant surge of 2023 and 2024.

Christian Britschgi | 6.2.2026 5:15 PM

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Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Rent Free.

This week's lead story covers the release of the federal government's latest homelessness survey, which reported a rare decline in the country's homeless population. That's welcome news that nevertheless looks a little less rosy when one examines the details.

Rent Free Newsletter by Christian Britschgi. Get more of Christian's urban regulation, development, and zoning coverage.

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Next up, the newsletter covers Daniel Grand, who is asking the Supreme Court to hear his First Amendment challenge to zoning laws that prevented him from hosting a Jewish prayer gathering in his own home.

The End of the Migrant Surge Leads to a Fall in Nationwide Homelessness 

There were 745,652 homeless people in the country in 2025, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) latest annual homelessness survey. 

That represents a rare decline of 3 percent in the homeless population from 2024, when there were 771,480 homeless people.

HUD's numbers come from the annual point-in-time count, conducted one night each January by state and local homeless service providers, during which volunteers go out and literally count the number of people sleeping on the streets and in shelters.

This year's reported 3 percent decline follows an unprecedented 18 percent spike in the homeless population in 2024.

That spike was largely driven by the influx of foreign migrants into big city shelter systems in places such as New York, Chicago, and Denver. Even by the time the 2024 numbers had been published, there were signs that the migrant surge was ebbing.

That's now reflected in the 2025 numbers. The report notes that New York and Illinois, the two states hit hardest by the migrant surge, saw the biggest declines in their homeless populations. 

Collectively, the two states saw their homeless populations fall by roughly 24,000 people. That accounts for almost 90 percent of the national total fall in........

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