States With the Most Homeless People 2025

What this chart shows. The number of people experiencing homelessness in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia on a single night in January 2025. California counted 181,934 people, 24.4% of the 745,652 counted nationwide, and New York 145,560; together the two states hold 43.9% of the total. Washington was a distant third with 31,721.

How the data is collected. Every January, local Continuums of Care, the planning bodies that run homeless services, count the people staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing and safe havens, and the people sleeping outside, in cars or in other places not meant for living. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) adds up these Point-in-Time counts by state and publishes them in its Annual Homelessness Assessment Report; the 2025 report came out in 2026.

Background. The national count fell 3.3% from 771,480 in 2024, the highest figure in the series that begins in 2007. The fall came mostly from two states: New York counted 12,459 fewer people and Illinois 11,256 fewer. Across the 50 states the picture was mixed, with increases in 28 and decreases in 22; the largest increase in numbers was in Oregon, up 4,327.

Limits. A one-night count misses people who are doubled up with friends or family, and people who are hard to find on a winter night, so it is best read as a minimum. HUD requires communities to count sheltered people every year but unsheltered people only every other year, so some unsheltered numbers are carried over or estimated. The national figure of 745,652 includes Puerto Rico, Guam and the other territories, which are not shown here.