HUD Announces Largest Decrease in Homelessness
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the largest decrease in homelessness on record in American history.
According to data from the 2026 nationwide Point-in-Time (PIT) count, 698,425 individuals were homeless on a single night in January, a 6.3% decrease since President Trump took office in 2025, the agency said.
HUD said that follows historic border control and a Supreme Court victory reaffirming the right of local governments to limit what it called dangerous encampments.
The agency said in a release that under the Biden Administration’s Housing First mandate, homelessness increased 28% from 2022 to 2025 and said that is why it is dispensing with this approach and implementing Treatment First policies to help Americans tackle addiction.
More Work Ahead
“President Trump’s actions to secure the border, get criminal illegals off our streets, and restore safety to our communities drove a historic decrease in homelessness,” said Secretary Scott Turner. “However, after a decade of failed Housing First policies, homelessness remains near a historic high. Clearly, there is more work to do. HUD is rejecting the addiction-fueled depravity seen from LA’s Skid Row to New York’s ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ and moving to Treatment First to restore lives of self-sufficiency.”
HUD said that under the Biden Administration’s open border policies, illegal immigrants filled America’s homeless shelters and homelessness rose largely in states with Sanctuary City policies such as New York, Illinois, California, and Massachusetts.
HUD noted that in July 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order on “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” which empowered the agency to tackle substance abuse as part of addressing homelessness and protecting public safety, shifting from the failed Housing First policies.
Assist the Homeless
In June, Turner announced the most competitive homelessness assistance funding in history to invest in approaches that deliver results and received a record-setting 3,700 new applications from across the country, the agency said in a release.
In August, Turner rolled out the “Best Practices Toolkit: Addressing Homelessness and Addiction through Treatment First” alongside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).
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