Homeless Population By State In The US For 2026

The 10 Most Homeless States In America

1. Hawaii

Population: 1,445,235
Homeless Population: 11,637
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0081
More On Hawaii: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Hawaii has close to the highest cost of living of all US states, so the homeless problem there is definitely related to a lack of affordable housing. And it can be a lot more difficult to move because you’re stuck on an island.

The good news – if there is any good news in this depressing video, is that homelessness in Hawaii is actually going down. This state is no longer number one per capita for homeless.

But as it stands, there’s still about 11,637 people on these islands, which is a lot, considering the small population here.

What is Hawaii doing right? Spending money to save money. A program called Housing First provides free housing for homeless people, and costs about $25,000 a year per person. However, the state saves money on healthcare and locking people up when they give them a home. So housing Hawaiians is an investment.

But the budget only goes so far. And, the state admits the biggest problem is still funding for drug rehab and mental illness treatment.

2. New York

Population: 19,852,366
Homeless Population: 158,019
Homeless Per Capita: 0.008
More On New York: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

But you know who ISN’T investing in housing its residents? New York isn’t.

At least, New York CITY isn’t. They actually get caught schlepping their homeless across the river in New Jersey. New Jersey people apparently don’t like that very much. The state of New York pays for a year of rent in another state, as long as you don’t come back. Apparently, it is cheaper to move them into New Jersey than it is to keep them within their own city limits.

It’s nothing unique to New York City though. Lots of cities do this.

Anyways, there’s somewhere around 158,019 homeless in the state of New York, and around 80,000 in New York City alone, even though the mayor Bill DeBlasio says it’s far less than that.

All in all, about 1 in 5 homeless people in the country are either in Los Angeles or New York City alone.

New York will try and house folks who need help and the state’s homeless budget is about $4 billion annually, and most of that is spent in New York City alone. This is interesting: New York City homeless Shelters apparently charge whatever the heck they want. That’s ruffling some feathers, since you know, the budget has limits.

New York City proper is a very expensive place to live, and there’s definitely a lack of affordable housing here.

3. Oregon

Population: 4,254,293
Homeless Population: 22,875
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0054
More On Oregon: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

While the national homeless rate has gone down a bit over the last ten year, Oregon’s has risen by 14% and seems to be going up all the time. Portland and Eugene have the most homeless here, and both rank towards the top nationally.

Lots of people complain that the state of Oregon caters to the homeless, which is why more and more of them are showing up.

4. Vermont

Population: 647,106
Homeless Population: 3,458
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0053
More On Vermont: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Vermont is a unique situation. The homeless rate here had been declining, but is on the rise once again. There are far fewer homeless here than in other states we’ll talk about, but it’s a small state, too. It’s estimated that there are 0.0053 homeless people for every 10,000 residents.

It’s much colder here than it is out west, but, still, 10% of the homeless in Vermont live on the streets every night. That’s far LOWER than out west, where it’s estimated 1 in 3 homeless people live outdoors.

Vermont ranks highly in the nation for welfare spending per capita, and many residents here complain about high taxes and a high cost of living. However, all that tax money isn’t enough to keep up with trying to assist the growing homeless in Vermont. The state spends $140,000 a night putting residents up in hotel rooms, and wind up spending more in fielding calls from hotel owners regarding vandalism and drug use.

Incidentally, Vermont ranks towards the top in terms of drug use and overdose rates.

5. California

Population: 39,287,377
Homeless Population: 187,084
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0048
More On California: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

You might have expected California would have the most homeless people, and you’d be right, but per capita, it’s only third. No one knows how many homeless there are in this state. This was filmed in Los Angeles this past October, where it’s estimated there are 40,000 homeless people in this city alone. It’s probably way higher than that. What was once just skid row has blossomed into skid city.

There’s a lot of movie stars in LA. I haven’t heard of them helping the problem. Many say LA manufactures its own homeless problem due to a lack of affordable places to live, and I’m sure that’s correct. However, the addicted and the mentally unstable I am showing here do not seem to be victims of a housing shortage.

The state as a whole has seen a 16% increase in homeless rates over the last decade. They think there’s 187,084 homeless people here, but it’s likely much higher than that.

San Francisco’s also terrible. It’s the city without pity. You walk around San Francisco and step over people sleeping on the sidewalks all the time. They’ve taken over much of downtown now and the city panders to them – putting them up in rooms and handing out drugs, cigarettes and booze to keep them under control emotionally. They seem to have more rights than the average working person. The homeless were given a higher priority for covid vaccines than most California residents were. Can you believe that?

When it rains, they sleep on the midnight special buses all night. But when it rains that means all the poop and needles go down the drain so that’s good.

No wonder California has the most people moving out when you see how its twin cities look these days.

6. Massachusetts

Population: 7,044,056
Homeless Population: 29,360
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0042
More On Massachusetts: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

There’s about 29,360 people in Massachusetts who are homeless on any given night these days. And, it’s estimated the number of families who are homeless here has increased at the highest rate of any other state. Overall, as a state, it’s up by 20% over the last decade. This is really the only real right to shelter state in the country, though New York has similar laws. Basically, it means if you don’t have anywhere to live, the state will put you or in a hotel room for up to a year – and help you transition to permanent housing, though the wait for that is like 10 years.

Of course, hopefully within 10 years, folks are able to get back on their feet, but some will never do so. It’s SUPER complicated. Many homeless people who recently lost their jobs and had other setbacks will sleep in motels or in their cars or other vehicles, often moving around until they can get back on their feet again.

But those who are openly living on the streets like this are not that group, for the most part.

Some Americans insist the people you see on the streets choose to live like this because in the shelters, they have to follow rules. There’s places that will take them in, for free, and help them get back on their feet. Some say no one with a healthy state of mind would choose to live like this. For many of these street dwellers, it’s addiction and mental illness.

7. Washington

Population: 7,816,116
Homeless Population: 31,554
Homeless Per Capita: 0.004
More On Washington: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Okay so Seattle is just a mess. As you’ve heard, the homeless problem here is beyond a crisis and getting worse by the week. What was once a beautiful city has been taken over by drug addicts, the mentally unstable and the lifestyle street people. But there’s a lot of other people in this state who are NOT just those you see in Seattle. There’s about 31,554 homeless people in Washington state at the time of this writing, but again, no one knows the true number.

The state has talked about taxing businesses up to $120 million a year to help fund homeless relief programs and help pay for affordable housing. That scared a LOT of people, and if you haven’t heard, lots of companies AND residents have been leaving Seattle.

How much of the problem in places like Seattle is because of the cost of living and how much is the lifestyle? Sure, getting a place in Seattle is out of reach for a lot of people, but they can relocate, right? If you get priced out of your house, there’s plenty of places you can move where you can afford, and agencies will help you relocate. And I over simplifying this? Like if you can’t afford to live in Seattle, why stay and live in your car? I’m not trying to be insensitive, I just don’t understand.

The cost of living in places like Seattle is a very complicated issue. Sometimes, it’s greedy landlords that add fire to the problem of affordable housing. We’ll talk about that when we get to New York. But regulations make it hard for developers to build affordable housing, or to justify their construction. This guy says he’s a landlord and a developer and the fees that the government charges makes it hard to justify building affordable units on land he owns, even though he would LOVE to do it.

8. Alaska

Population: 735,706
Homeless Population: 2,686
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0037
More On Alaska: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Alaska, believe it or not, ranks eighth in terms of homeless rate per capita. It’s obviously very cold here, but 18% of Alaskans who are homeless live unsheltered. Some people here will commit petty crimes to get thrown in jail intentionally so they are warm. They they get out and do it all over again.

The cost of living here is really high – this state ranks as the 9th most expensive when you factor in the cost for a roof over your head.

But more than the cost of living is the culture here in Alaska. Anchorage has what local leaders call a crisis, as people wander around on streets, couch surf or battle bed bugs or crime at local fleabag motels. There’s a bid drug and alcohol problem in Alaska, and sheer number of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual assault rates are all super high in Alaska, which means people are in transition a lot more often here.

Alaska has doubled its homeless assistance program to $8 million a year, or $8,000 per homeless person, per year. As a nation, we spend about $3 billion annually on homeless assistance at the federal. To put that into perspective, we gave Afghanistan nearly $5 billion last year. And this is just the tip of our foreign spending iceberg. As you can imagine, we give away tons of money to other countries while our own citizens live like this.

9. Colorado

Population: 5,862,189
Homeless Population: 18,715
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0032
More On Colorado: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Next is the state of Colorado. People in Denver can attest to a rise in homelessness here. Over the past few years, there’s been a noticeable spike in the number of people living in the streets – in parts of Denver that were once clean and safe.

The state of Colorado estimates that on any given night, there are about 18,715 people living without shelter here, but that number is really hard to measure. For one, there are lots of people living in areas that you’ll never see. And, often, there are families who are living in hotel rooms or in their cars who don’t want to be counted. So, it’s likely this number is much higher. In fact, another report says the Denver metro area alone saw more than 30,000 people who had accessed homeless resources last year. Again, there is no real way of getting an exact count, but it is estimated Colorado has seen an 8% rise in homelessness in the last decade.

However, it’s estimated that about a quarter of the homeless population in Colorado is chronically homeless. Like, they’ve been living on the streets for years now, and will likely continue to do so. For many, it’s a lifestyle of choice. Despite how you feel about the cost of living or the lack of resources for the chronically homeless, it is true that a large part of the homeless population simply wants to live a life like this.

In Colorado, one big reason for the surge has been legal marijuana. The state saw a surge in its population since marijuana became legal.

10. Nevada

Population: 3,184,612
Homeless Population: 10,106
Homeless Per Capita: 0.0032
More On Nevada: Biggest Cities | Average Rent

Now, Nevada is another state that saw marijuana legalized, and it has had an impact on the state’s homeless population. It’s estimated there are fewer homeless people in Nevada than in Colorado, but the population here is far smaller than in Colorado, so the per capita number is higher. About 10,106 people in Nevada were homeless last year, but in the greater Las Vegas metro area, more than 13,000 people experienced homelessness at some point.

There’s a lot of people who live homeless in the city of Las Vegas who are likely never going to be counted.

Of course, drugs, booze and gambling are a big draw to Vegas, which boosts the homeless numbers significantly. But it’s also pretty warm here year round, and as we’ll see, the warmer the climate, the more people are willing to sleep on the streets. Other states like Arizona and New Mexico have a large homeless problem, and they’re just outside of the top 10.

But warm weather doesn’t necessarily mean homeless. That’s because the states with the least number of homeless are the deep south. Mississippi has the least number of homeless people per capita, followed by Louisiana and Iowa, and those are some of our warmest states. Why is that? Two reasons primarily – far less people in the deep south live in urbanized areas. But the cost of living down in the deep south is really low. This chart shows Mississippi residents can comfortably rent a house on about $3,500 a month combined monthly income. But in California, a family needs to earn about $8,300 a month to comfortably rent a house.

A HUGE difference.

How We Determined The Most Homeless States Per Capita

To create our list of the homeless population by state in America, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the Point in Time Estimate from HUD. For each state excluding DC, we looked at the homeless population per capita.

We then ranked each state from one to 50, with the lowest number having the largest homeless population.

Pretty straightforward.

Wrapping Up A Take On The Most Homeless States

Now we talked about greedy landlords earlier, and how complex the affordable housing problem is. Rent control is supposed to provide affordable housing, but only for people who are ACTUALLY IN the building to begin with. Someone moves out and you can charge whatever you want. So landlords in New York City are incentivized to have you move out, and then leave units vacant until someone comes along and can pay a lot of money. So there’s a housing shortage. \n\nAnother problem with rent control in some cities like San Francisco is building owners will turn their apartment buildings into condos or retail or just knock them down because rent control made running the building unprofitable. \n\nAnd gentrification has definitely made living in large urban areas less feasible for poor folks. But again, the question arises – why don’t people who can’t afford to live here just leave? Well, the New York Times posed that question too – and noted that often people DO leave. But the thing that keeps people around, in big cities they cannot and will not ever be able to afford – are social connections and support from friends and family.\n\nSo the problem of homelessness is very complicated. Part of the problem is politics – setting aside money or creating laws to help folks with housing, without upsetting the people who work and pay the taxes and the businesses in the area. Addressing addiction and mental illness is another thorn we have yet to solve. But, we have to admit, there is a large percentage of the homeless in this country that does not want help nor do they want a roof over their heads. \n\nAnyways, that’s our look at the states with the most homeless people per capita. It’s a big mess. Some states have unique approaches, and others seem to be making the problem worse by encouraging it or at least not making it hard for people to live on their streets.\n\nDo you have an idea on how we can fix this mess? We can’t just build a free house for anyone who wants one. Cause then no one would work.\n\nRight?

For more reading, check out:

• Richest Cities In America
• Cheapest States To Live In
• Most Dangerous Cities

Homeless Population Per Capita By State In The US