WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 9, 2026) — As reported exclusively in The New York Times, Community Solutions, a nonprofit working with more than 170 communities to secure housing and make homelessness rare and brief, released an analysis of available 2026 point-in-time (PIT) count data on homelessness.
Each January, communities across the country conduct the PIT count, an estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness in shelters and in unsheltered locations on a single night. HUD has published the national figure from those counts every year since 2009, typically releasing the national estimates the following winter. Because communities may publish their own results locally well before that, by monitoring publicly available data Community Solutions compiled and forecasted a national downward shift in homelessness based on data from 182 of the over 380 HUD Continuum of Care Regions HUD Continuum of Care Regions before HUD published their 2026 results. HUD’s results confirmed Community Solution’s analysis, but the analysis went further, finding:
- Homelessness decreased an estimated 6 percent nationally during 2026.
- If this estimate holds, it would be the largest single-year decline in homelessness since HUD began national Point-in-Time reporting in 2007, in both percentage and number of people.
- Homelessness is now on a decline for the second year in a row, with approximately 72,000 fewer people experiencing homelessness in January 2026 as compared to January 2024.
- Both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness declined, and veteran homelessness saw the biggest decrease in over 10 years.
“Over the past ten years, our communities have experienced economic shifts, public health emergencies, and housing crises. The numbers we see today stand as a testament to the resiliency of our communities amidst all this chaos,” said Adam Ruege, Principal of Policy and Evaluation at Community Solutions. “Even now – in the face of ongoing changes in federal policies and uncertainties around funding – communities are continuing to make progress.”
The decline seen in 2026 thus far reverses the years-long trend of recent annual increases. National PIT counts climbed by about a third between 2022 and 2024, reaching a record of roughly 770,000 people in January 2024. In 2025, the count fell to 745,652, its first decline in years. And this year, in the 182 communities in this comparison, that number is on track to fall again among people in shelters and people living on the street alike, regardless of type and size of community.
“After years of increasing homelessness, we are now seeing two years in a row of decline, with unsheltered homelessness falling most rapidly,” said Rosanne Haggerty, President and CEO of Community Solutions. “These numbers reflect the sheer commitment of local leaders and the growing adoption of coordinated, outcomes-focused efforts to expand housing options for those facing housing crises.”
Community Solutions’ projection is based on publicly available data and our own real-time data indicators.
Read the full report here, and the blog post explaining the results here. For Community Solutions’ preliminary analysis on PIT count data for veteran homelessness, check out the press release here.
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About Community Solutions
Community Solutions is a nonprofit working to make homelessness rare and brief. It leads Built for Zero, a network of more than 160 US communities using a field-tested, outcomes-focused approach to reducing and preventing homelessness. Learn more at www.community.solutions or follow us at @CmtySolutions.
Media Contact:
Maddy Troha
mtroha@community.solutions
