Washington-Saba:
The US Department of Housing announced that the number of homeless people registered in the United States in 2024 reached 770,000 people, a record number that is 18% more than their number in 2023.
The ministry attributed this increase to several reasons, most notably the lack of low-cost housing, inflation, the influx of immigrants into the country, the cessation of some of the aid provided during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the many natural disasters that the United States witnessed.
The ministry warned that this statistic is based on censuses conducted by authorities of a number of cities and towns on a single night last January, and therefore the data on which it is based was collected a year ago, so it is likely to not represent a true representation of the current situation due to changes that have occurred since then.
This record number reflects the huge problem that the world's largest economy suffers from, which is economic and social inequality.
According to the ministry, the study showed a significant increase in the number of homeless families, due in particular to the "particularly noticeable impact" of immigration.
The ministry pointed out that the percentage of homeless people who are black or African Americans reached 32%, while this ethnic group constitutes only 12% of the total population of the United States.
This census was conducted before the Supreme Court issued a decision in June allowing authorities to punish homeless people who sleep in the open, which resulted in tightening policies related to the homeless in a number of states.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the dismantling of homeless camps across the western state. Nearly a quarter of the homeless in the United States live in California.
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