Homelessness in the United States by state

Homelessness in the United States has differing rates of prevalence by state. The total number of homeless people in the United States fluctuates and constantly changes, hence a comprehensive figure encompassing the entire nation is not issued, since counts from independent shelter providers and statistics managed by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development vary greatly. Federal HUD counts hover annually at around 500,000 people. Point-in-time counts are also vague measures of homeless populations and are not a precise and definitive indicator for the total number of cases, which may differ in both directions up or down. The most recent figure for 2019, was 567,715 individuals nationally that experienced homelessness at a point in time during this period.

Homeless people may use shelters, or may sleep in cars, tents, on couches, or in other public places. Separate counts of sheltered people and unsheltered people are critical in understanding the homeless population. Each state has different laws, social services and medical policies, and other conditions which influence the number of homeless persons, and what services are available to homeless people in each state.

A 2022 study found that differences in per capita homelessness rates across the country are not due to mental illness, drug addiction, or poverty, but to differences in the cost of housing due largely to housing shortages, with West Coast cities including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles having homelessness rates five times that of areas with much lower housing costs, like Arkansas, West Virginia, and Detroit, even though the latter locations have high burdens of opioid addiction and poverty.

The state by state counts of people listed below are derived from under-reported federal HUD statistics.

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling which permitted cities to ban homeless camps, thus making it possible to jail people for sleeping in areas such as public parks.

Mental illness in Alaska is a current epidemic that the state struggles to manage. The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness stated that as of January 2018, Alaska had an estimated 2,016 citizens experiencing homelessness on any given day while around 3,784 public school students experienced homelessness over the course of the year as well. Within that niche group,^{[clarification needed]} an average of 25–28% of the homeless are either moderately or severely affected by mental illness, according to Torrey (2018) with the Mental Illness Policy Organization on studies done in 2015. Currently, At the state's flagship Alaska Psychiatric Institute, almost half the rooms are empty, a problem that has persisted for several years (Anchorage Daily News. 2018).

To assess the situation of each individual physically and mentally, and consider the social disparity that they may also have issues with. Financially, having money problems is a stressful situation to any ‘normal’ individual, but to have financial troubles as someone with mental illnesses could be nearly life-threatening. Trying to find capable staff to handle the needs of the homeless mentally ill, when they are sent in for processing in the Alaska Jail system to keep them off of the streets, is hard to come by due to budgetary issues and finding the workforce for this field.

Although throughout the United States panhandling is discouraged, passive panhandling falls under First Amendment rights to free speech. In Alabama the prohibition of aggressive panhandling and regulation of passive panhandling is controlled by individual cities, with many panhandlers being charged with loitering offenses. Loitering for the purposes of begging and prostitution in Alabama is a criminal offense. An issue for Alabamians is the proportion of panhandlers defined as vagrants, who contrary to their implications, are not homeless but accept the generosity of the community under this false pretense.