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In the United States, the number of homeless people on a given night in January 2023 was more than 650,000 according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homelessness has increased in recent years, in large part due to an increasingly severe housing shortage and rising home prices in the United States. Early homeless people lived in emerging urban cities, such as New York City. Into the 20th century, the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a substantial rise homelessness. In 1990, the U. S. Census Bureau estimated the homeless population of the country to be 228,621 (or 0.09% of the 248,709,873 enumerated in the 1990 U. S. census) which homelessness advocates criticized as an undercount. In the 21st century, the Great Recession of the late 2000s and the resulting economic stagnation and downturn have been major driving factors and contributors to rising homelessness rates. The main contributor to homelessness is a lack of housing supply and rising home values. Interpersonal and individual factors, such as mental illness and addiction, also play a role in explaining homelessness. Health complications are significant concern for homeless people, as lack of residence inhibits hygiene and access to healthy food, and exposes individuals to both cold and heat stress. This contributes to increased mortality rates. Most homeless people lived in California, New York, Florida, and Washington in 2022, according to the annual Homeless Assessment Report. Increases in homelessness broke records in 2022 and then again the following year. In 2023, record levels of homelessness have been declared in Los Angeles and New York City, and other cities around the country have reported increased levels of homelessness, with the main drivers being a shortage of affordable housing and the increased cost of living. Vagabonds could be sentenced to the stocks for three days and nights; in 1530, whipping was added. The presumption was that vagabonds were unlicensed beggars.

Homelessness emerged as a national issue in the 1870s. There are no national figures documenting homeless people's demography at this time. In smaller towns, there were hobos, who temporarily lived near train tracks and hopped onto trains to various destinations. Especially following the American Civil War, a large number of homeless men formed part of a counterculture known as "hobohemia" all over America. By the late 19th century, many American towns and cities had significant numbers of homeless people. In New York City, for example, there was an area known as "the Bowery". Rescue missions offering "soup, soap, and salvation", a phrase introduced by The Salvation Army, sprang up along the Bowery thoroughfare, including the oldest one, The Bowery Mission. The mission was founded in 1879 by the Rev. and Mrs. A. G. Ruliffson.

The Great Depression of the 1930s caused a devastating epidemic of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. There were two million homeless people migrating across the United States. Many lived in shantytowns they called "Hoovervilles" deriding the President they blamed for the Depression. Residents lived in shacks and begged for food or went to soup kitchens. Authorities did not officially recognize these Hoovervilles and occasionally removed the occupants for technically trespassing on private lands, but they were frequently tolerated out of necessity. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took over the presidency from Herbert Hoover, he passed the New Deal, which greatly expanded social welfare, including providing funds to build public housing.

A 1960 survey by Temple University of Philadelphia's poor neighborhoods found that 75 percent of the people that are homeless were over 45 years old, and 87 percent were white. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 was a pre disposing factor in setting the stage for homelessness in the United States. Long term psychiatric patients were released from state hospitals into single room occupancies and sent to community health centers for treatment and follow up. Never adequately funded, the community mental health system struggled to meet patient needs and many of the "deinstitutionalized" wound up living on the streets, with no sustainable support system. In the United States, during the late 1970s, the deinstitutionalization of patients from state psychiatric hospitals was a precipitating factor which seeded the population of people that are homeless, especially in urban areas such as New York City.

The number of homeless people grew in the 1980s, nearly doubling from 1984 to 1987. According to Don Mitchell, this was in part due to the neoliberal reforms of the Reagan presidency, as housing and social service cuts increased and also the economy suffered a recession early in the decade. The United States government determined that somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 Americans were then homeless. There were some U. S. federal initiatives that aimed to help, end and prevent homelessness; however, there were no designated homeless related programs in the Office of Management and Budget. Tent cities, which had largely vanished during the post war period, began to re emerge during this time. It is largely (although not exclusively) in these urban areas that homelessness became widespread and reached unprecedented numbers. Most notable were cuts to federal low income housing programs. An advocacy group claims that Congress halved the budget for public housing and Section 8 (the government's housing voucher subsidization program) and that between the years of 1980 and 1989 HUD's budget authority was reduced from $74 billion to $19 billion. In response to the ensuing homelessness crisis of the 1980s and after many years of advocacy and numerous revisions, President Reagan signed into law the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act in 1987; this remains the only piece of federal legislation that allocates funding to the direct service of homeless people. The McKinney–Vento Act paved the way for service providers in the coming years. During the 1990s, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other supportive services sprouted up in cities and towns across the nation. However, despite these efforts and the dramatic economic growth marked by this decade, homeless numbers rose and remained high from 1990 to 1999 according to the "coalition for the homeless" webpage. It became increasingly apparent that simply providing services to alleviate the symptoms of homelessness (i. e. shelter beds, hot meals, psychiatric counseling, etc. ), although needed, were not successful at solving the root causes of homelessness. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), a federal agency contained in the Executive Branch, was established in 1987 as a requirement of the McKinney–Vento Act of 1987. A 1990 survey found that most literally homeless people were unable to bathe or shower. In 1992, the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing published a report identifying 6% of public housing as "severely distressed". This led to a 5 billion dollar funding package, HOPE VI, for replacing distressed public housing with mixed income developments. The demolition of SROs was incentivized by increased real estate prices and neighborhood pressure, resulting in the teardown of more units than were initially identified. Redevelopments did not include nearly as many units of public housing as were demolished, decreasing the total stock of public housing and putting more people on the streets.

Over the past decades, the availability and quality of data on homelessness has improved considerably, due, in part, to initiatives by the United States government. Since 2007, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued an Annual Homeless Assessment Report, which revealed the number of individuals and families that were homeless, both sheltered and unsheltered. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, the most common demographic features of all sheltered homeless people are: male, members of minority groups, older than age 31, and alone. More than 40 percent of sheltered homeless people have a disability. At the same time, sizable segments of the sheltered homeless population are white, non Hispanic (38 percent), children (20 percent), or part of multi person households (33 percent). Approximately 68 percent of the 1.6 million sheltered homeless people were homeless as individuals and 32 percent were persons in families. In 2008 more than 66% of all sheltered homeless people were located in principal cities, with 32% located in suburban or rural jurisdictions. About 40% of people entering an emergency shelter or transitional housing program during 2008 came from another homeless situation (sheltered or unsheltered), 40% came from a housed situation (in their own or someone else's home), and the remaining 20% were split between institutional settings or other situations such as hotels or motels. Most people had relatively short lengths of stay in emergency shelters: 60% stayed less than a month, and a 33% stayed a week or less. Around 44% of homeless people were employed. In 2009 it was estimated that one out of 50 children or 1.5 million children in the United States of America would experience some form of homelessness each year. There were an estimated 37,878 homeless veterans in the United States during January 2017; or 8.6 percent of all homeless adults (as compared with approximately 7 percent of the U. S. adult population in 2018 that were military veterans). Texas, California and Florida have the highest numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth under the age of 18, comprising 58% of the total homeless under 18 youth population. New York City reported it had approximately 114,000 temporarily homeless school children. From 2007 to 2015, homelessness appeared, from the federal survey, to be in decline. However, beginning in 2016, the surveys showed a steady increase in homelessness, particularly among the unsheltered. The COVID 19 pandemic, and associated economic downturn, housing shortages and housing price inflation (outpacing wage growth), and the end of government protections and assistance to counter the economic effects of COVID 19 along with the explosive growth in addictions to methamphetamine, opioids, and Fentanyl contributed to a sharp rise in homelessness in the early 2020s. By 2023, according to the federal survey, a record 653,104 homeless were identified in the annual federal survey a 12% jump over the previous year, quadruple any other year's increase, with increases in every category and demographic of homelessness. Lack of affordable housing throughout much of the country is considered the "root cause" of the contemporary homelessness crisis. Writing for The Atlantic in 2023, Jerusalem Demsas says that "homelessness is primarily a function of the broader housing unaffordability crisis, which in turn is primarily a function of how difficult local governments have made building new housing in the places that need it the most." Lack of sufficient urban housing projects to provide safe, secure, and affordable housing to the financially underprivileged. The deinstitutionalization movement from the 1950s onwards in state mental health systems, to shift towards 'community based' treatment of the mentally ill, as opposed to long term commitment in institutions. Redevelopment and gentrification activities instituted by cities across the country through which low income neighborhoods are declared blighted and demolished to make way for projects that generate higher property taxes and other revenue, creating a shortage of housing affordable to low income working families, the elderly poor, and the disabled. Natural disasters that destroy homes: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. Places of employment are often destroyed too, causing unemployment and transience. People who have served time in prison, have used addictive substances, or have a history of mental illness find it difficult to find employment for years at a time because of the use of computer background checks by potential employers. Also inclusive of registered sex offenders who are considered unwelcome in some metropolitan areas. See prisoner reentry. According to the Institution of Housing in 2005, the U. S. Government has focused 42% more on foreign countries rather than homeless Americans, including homeless veterans. Complex building codes which can make it difficult to build and construct. Traditional huts, cars, and tents can be illegal, classified as substandard and may require removal by the owner or be subject to removal by the government. Evictions from rented property. Lack of resources in place in the communities to help aid in prevention of homelessness before it becomes a crisis. In poor communities, landlords increase the rent burden on tenants in what they perceive to be risky investments, extracting more profits from them than their counterparts in more affluent communities, which according to sociologist Matthew Desmond and his colleague, "directly contributes to their economic scarcity and hardship and is a source of residential insecurity, eviction, and homelessness." Low income workers are at increased risk of homelessness as wages for the typical American worker have stagnated over the last three decades while housing costs have climbed, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Negative interactions and experiences can create trauma that prevents an individual from ever wanting to re establish ties. In a study on adverse childhood experiences, "Nearly nine in ten homeless adults have been exposed to at least one early traumatic experience, and more than half of homeless adults have been exposed to four or more early traumatic experiences". This high incidence reveals how many unhoused individuals have experienced trauma, often repeatedly. The unhoused population is particularly susceptible to relational poverty because they often have lost social support systems because of shame or lost access to a phone or other means to connect. Social support can come in different forms to unhoused individuals. Ties to employment, cultural spaces, and a community are all social ties that can have a positive effect on an unhoused individual's wellbeing. "Furthermore, social support can create positive affective states, and supportive relationships can provide individuals with access to positive social influence that can encourage healthy behaviors."

According to the U. S. Conference of Mayors, the demand for emergency shelter in 270 U. S. cities increased 13 percent in 2001 and 25 percent in 2005. On May 20, 2009, President Obama signed the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act into Public Law (Public Law 111 22 or "PL 111 22"), reauthorizing HUDs Homeless Assistance programs. It was part of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009. The HEARTH act allows for the prevention of homelessness, rapid re housing, consolidation of housing programs, and new homeless categories. In the first year of the new decade, the Federal government launched of Opening Doors: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness. Opening Doors is a publication of the U. S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which worked with all Federal agencies and many state and local stakeholders on its creation and vision, setting a ten year path for the nation on preventing and ending all types of homelessness. This plan was presented to the President and Congress in a White House Ceremony on June 22, 2010. In New York City, the number of homeless people using nightly shelter services has tripled from approximately 20,000 to more than 60,000 between January 2000 and January 2015. In 2016, homelessness is considered an epidemic in several U. S. cities. "Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and seven of the 15 City Council members announced they would declare a state of emergency and try to find $100 million to cure what has become a municipal curse." In September 2018, in Martin v. City of Boise, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the city's Camping and Disorderly Conduct Ordinances violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Cities cannot punish homeless people for sleeping in public when the homeless shelters are full. During the COVID 19 pandemic in the United States, mass job loss and unemployment led to fears of mass evictions as tenants became unable to pay rent. According to US government sources, homelessness has increased drastically, particularly in the US West as real estate shortages drove up rents even higher, when people from already lower income levels were laid off from their jobs and evicted from existing housing. The estimates for homeless persons in the US during the COVID 19 pandemic range from 600,000 to 1.5 million people, making the US the worst affected industrialized country with regard to unhoused individuals. Local city governments in California and Oregon have started to intensify anti homelessness campaigns in 2020, with limited success as local citizens reported extensive sprawls of homeless people in parks and public areas, creating unsanitary conditions with negative effects on small businesses. As of March 2021, there was an estimated 6.4 million American households that were behind on rent. Due to COVID, the Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2021 report to Congress on the state of homelessness in the United States was unable to perform an accurate count of unsheltered homeless individuals. Instead, the report focused on point in time counts of sheltered homeless peoples.

Homelessness is driven by a number of causes, but one of the most direct causes is a lack of affordable housing. According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, "affordable housing shortages" is among the top policy related causes of homelessness, and 40% 60% of homeless people have a job yet still cannot afford housing. In academic research, homelessness rates are directly correlated with increases in rent, most notably when the cost of rent in an area exceeds 30% of an area's median income. In California in particular, high housing costs were found to be a key driver of homelessness. A 2023 survey of homeless individuals in California found that among typical causes of homelessness, many people were driven into homelessness due to high rents and low incomes which could not cover the cost of rent. In a 2022 book titled "Homelessness is a Housing Problem", Clayton Page Aldern (a policy analyst and data scientist in Seattle) and Gregg Colburn (an assistant professor of real estate at the University of Washington's College of Built Environments) studied homelessness rates across the country along with what possible factors might be influencing the rates. They found that high rates of homelessness are caused by shortages of affordable housing, not by mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty. Further, they found that mental illness, drug addiction and poverty occur nationwide, but not all places have equally expensive housing costs. One example cited is that two states with high rates of opioid addiction, Arkansas and West Virginia, both have low per capita rates of homelessness, because of low housing prices. With respect to poverty, the city of Detroit is one of the poorest cities, yet Detroit's homelessness rate is 20% that of West Coast cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development acknowledges four categories of people who qualify as legally homeless: (1) those who are currently homeless, (2) those who will become homeless in the imminent future, (3) certain youths and families with children who suffer from home instability caused by a hardship, and (4) those who suffer from home instability caused by domestic violence. According to the Stewart B. McKinney Act, 42 U. S. C. § 11301, et seq. (1994), a person is considered homeless if they "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and has a primary nighttime residency that is: (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (B) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings." Human Rights Watch (2010) identified emancipated teenagers in California as a new homeless population.

Homeless veterans are persons who have served in the armed forces who are homeless or living without access to secure and appropriate accommodation. By HUD point in time measurements, there were an estimated 37,252 homeless veterans in the United States during January 2020; or 8 percent of all homeless adults. Just over 8 percent of homeless U. S. veterans are female. Throughout the 21st century, homeless service providers and the Federal government have been able to reduce chronic homelessness and homelessness among Veterans with targeted efforts and interagency cooperation on initiatives like the HUD VASH program. Indeed, the prominent role of the Department of Veterans Affairs and its joined up approach to veteran welfare help to distinguish the US response to veteran homelessness internationally.