INDIANAPOLIS — Homelessness continues to decline in the U.S., specifically among families with children, Veterans, and individuals with long-term disabling conditions according to the latest national estimate by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD’s 2016 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found the overall number of persons experiencing homelessness in Indiana on a single night in 2016 fell by 10% since 2010, the year the Obama Administration launched Opening Doors, the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness.
Since 2010, HUD estimates that Indiana experienced a 31 percent reduction among homeless families, a 13.6 percent drop in Veteran homelessness, and a 31 percent decline in individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. This national estimate is based upon data reported by approximately 3,000 cities and counties across the nation. Every year on a single night in January, planning agencies called ‘Continuums of Care” and tens of thousands of volunteers seek to identify the number of individuals and families living in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs and in unsheltered settings.