Perhaps the most accurate and current data on homelessness in the United States is reported annually by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress (AHAR).
The AHAR report relies on data from two sources: single-night, point-in-time counts of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations reported on the Continuum of Care applications to HUD; and counts of the sheltered homeless population over a full year provided by a sample of communities based on data in their local Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS).
The sixth report to Congress, the 2010 AHAR, released in July 2011, reports the following household and demographic information for people that had accessed emergency shelters and transitional housing between October 2009 and September 2010, based on a sampling of HMIS data:[1] About 1.59 million people were homeless in emergency shelters or transitional housing at some point during the year between October 1, 2009, and September 30, 2010.
A family is a household that includes an adult 18 years of age or older and at least one child.
Nearly 6 in 10 people who were homeless at a single point-in-time were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 42 percent were unsheltered on the “street” or in other places not meant for human habitation.