It’s no secret that Covid-19 created a health and economic crisis in America. What many people don’t realize is that it also impacted those experiencing homelessness. For example, many of the buildings where they traditionally found refuge, especially during bad weather, were closed. Luckily, the shelters, food banks, and soup kitchens reopened, and we’re back to some sort of normal.
In the United States, there are over a half a million people experiencing homelessness on any given night. These individuals live in a temporary shelter or transitional housing or sleep in a place not meant for habitation (like an abandoned building). Of this group, over 194,000 people are unsheltered (37% of the overall population). 171,000 are families, and 96,000 are chronically homeless. *
In Dallas and the Collin counties, there are 4,410 people experiencing homelessness on any given night, and 1,318 of those are unsheltered, meaning that they don't seek housing in shelters and live on the street. **