According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (2009), a homeless person or family is someone who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or an individual or family that sleep in a supervised publicly or privately temporary shelter. Other components such as living in a hotel/motel being paid by a federal, state, or other government programs also qualify under the homeless definition. At times, we also hear the phrase of being chronically homeless. The Housing for Urban Development (HUD) states that the unaccompanied individual not only falls under the homeless definition but must also has a disabling condition and has been continuously homeless for one year or longer or has had at least four episodes of homelessness that add up to twelve months in the last three years.
Homelessness in the United States has existed for many years. Events such as the Great Depression and the Great Recession have been known to increase the number of homeless people in the country. HUD’s 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress stated that in January of 2015, approximately 564, 708 people were homeless in the country on a single