Key Takeaways
• Sheltered homelessness in the U.S. rose 43% from 2022-2024, mostly concentrated in New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts, and Denver.
• Asylum seekers caused nearly 60% of this increase; 67,000 were sheltered in New York City, and 17,200 in Chicago by 2024.
• Cities with sanctuary or right-to-shelter policies faced high annual costs—$137,600 per asylum-seeker family in New York City.
Between 2022 and 2024, the United States 🇺🇸 saw one of the largest increases in sheltered homelessness ever recorded. This rise happened during a short period, and a new study shows that the main reason was the growing number of asylum seekers. These are people who come to the United States 🇺🇸 from other countries asking for safety because they face harm or danger at home. The trend was not spread out across the whole country. Instead, most of the increase took place in just a few places: New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts 🇺🇸 (mainly areas around Boston), and Denver. Every one of these areas has laws or policies that make it easier for newcomers to get help, no matter their legal status. The following analysis explains what happened during this period, why it matters, and what it could mean for the future.
Purpose and Scope
This analysis explains changes in sheltered homelessness in the United States 🇺🇸 between 2022 and 2024, focusing on the impact of asylum seekers in four main locations. It uses data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, research from the University of Chicago’s Harris School, and other sources that study migration and homelessness. The main aim is to show where the biggest changes happened, who was most affected, and what factors drove these trends.
Key Points and Early Summary
- The number of people living in emergency shelters (instead of on the streets) in the United States 🇺🇸 increased by 43% from 2022 to 2024.
- About 60% of this rise was because of asylum seekers.
- Most of the increase happened in New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts 🇺🇸, and Denver.
- New York City had the largest increase, with close to 67,000 new asylum seekers being sheltered.
- Chicago’s sheltered homelessness numbers rose more than six times, reaching 17,200 people by 2024, mostly due to asylum seekers.
- Massachusetts 🇺🇸, especially in the greater Boston area, added tens of thousands of people to its shelter system, again mostly asylum seekers.
- Denver had a big increase as well, driven by policies friendly to immigrants.
- Together, these places have only about 5% of the U.S. population, but they accounted for 75% of the total increase in sheltered homelessness.
- Asylum seeker families are expensive for cities to support. For example, in New York City, it cost about $137,600 per family per year to keep them in shelters.
The National Picture: Record Growth in Sheltered Homelessness
Between 2022 and 2024, the U.S. homeless population grew by about 189,000 people. This number increased from around 582,000 people in 2022 to 771,000 in 2024, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development data. It is important to note that this spike was mostly seen in people living in shelters rather than those living outside.
Almost all of this growth involved people who had access to emergency shelter. Out of the total extra 149,000 sheltered homeless persons, nearly 93,000 were asylum seekers. This means that nearly two out of every three new people staying in shelters during the period were newcomers asking for protection.
Why Did This Happen? The Role of Policies and Places
The record increase did not occur evenly across the nation. The biggest jumps took place in four areas: New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts 🇺🇸, and Denver. What these places have in common are special rules, often called “sanctuary” policies. These rules make it clear that police, city workers, and social service offices should not ask about immigration status before giving help. These places also have well-established systems for offering emergency shelter.
New York City: Right-to-Shelter and an Open Door
Of all the locations studied, New York City experienced the largest rise in sheltered homelessness tied to asylum seekers. The laws in New York City guarantee a right to shelter for anyone in need, no matter their legal status. This made the city a first choice destination for many new arrivals. According to the study, around 67,000 new asylum seekers were housed in shelters here during these two years. The city’s policy draws people who have nowhere else to go, and it also puts pressure on the shelter system.
Chicago: More Than Sixfold Increase
Chicago brands itself as a “Welcoming City.” This is a type of sanctuary policy, meaning the city gives services and help to all people, even if they are not legal residents. The city’s sheltered homeless population shot up from about 2,600 in 2022 to around 17,200 in 2024. About 94% of this increase came from asylum seekers. The city faced many challenges, from finding enough space to house people to paying very high costs to keep the shelters open.
Massachusetts: A Suburban Surge Around Boston
Massachusetts 🇺🇸, especially the suburbs around Boston, also saw large numbers of new arrivals. Tens of thousands of people, mostly families, turned to the state for help. Massachusetts 🇺🇸 has a safety net for everyone, so many asylum seekers traveled there knowing they would not be turned away. The study found that annual shelter costs for an asylum seeker family in Massachusetts 🇺🇸 could reach as high as $120,000 per year.
Denver: Welcoming Policies Bring More Need
Denver, like the other cities, has rules making it friendly to immigrants in need of shelter. It also saw a jump in demand for shelters, tied to new migrant arrivals. This added to challenges for local leaders working to provide services and support to those who had just arrived in the United States 🇺🇸.
Visualizing the Data
While we can’t show real charts here, imagine a line graph showing the total number of sheltered homeless people in each city from 2022 to 2024. The graph would show a steep upward curve for all four areas while other cities see much smaller changes. If you picture a pie chart split by city for the increase in sheltered homelessness, New York City would take the biggest slice, followed by Chicago, then Massachusetts 🇺🇸, and Denver.
Another way to look at it would be a bar graph showing total shelter costs per family per year in New York City and Massachusetts 🇺🇸, with both bars far taller than those for cities not in the study.
Why Was This Different From the Past?
What’s different about this period is that usual explanations for more homelessness, like lower wages or higher housing costs, did not drive most of the change. According to data and researchers at the University of Chicago, the main cause for the increase was the arrival of large numbers of asylum seekers. Local policy choices about who can access shelter played a much bigger part in explaining why certain places saw such large spikes.
Historically, big changes in homelessness numbers often relate to the health of the economy or housing market. That was not the case for 2022-2024. Instead, it was the sudden arrival of newcomers, matched with laws and shelter networks ready to help, that fueled the rise.
Cost Challenges for Cities and States
Supporting large numbers of asylum seeker families is expensive. Annual shelter costs per family were $137,600 in New York City and up to $120,000 in Massachusetts 🇺🇸. These high costs put a strain on city and state budgets, and local leaders had to decide between raising taxes, cutting other services, or asking other levels of government for help.
These costs cover things like food, temporary housing, health care, and sometimes transportation. Costs are even higher in cities, where space for shelters is limited and the basic cost of living is much higher than elsewhere.
Comparing Growth in Different Places
The study reports that while New York City, Chicago, Massachusetts 🇺🇸, and Denver make up just about 5% of the U.S. population, they made up three-quarters of the increase in sheltered homelessness. This shows that most of the country did not face the same challenges. Cities and states without sanctuary policies or right-to-shelter laws did not see nearly the same rise in numbers.
This difference suggests a strong link between the choices local leaders make about who can access shelters and both where asylum seekers go and where increases in homelessness take place. It also suggests federal immigration policy decisions—such as how many people are allowed to enter and ask for asylum—can directly impact homelessness in certain places.
Limitations and What the Data Can’t Show
It is important to keep a few things in mind when looking at these numbers. First, not all places collect or share data on immigration status, so the true numbers could be slightly higher or lower. Second, the study focuses on people staying in official shelters and may not count people living in informal or temporary situations, like staying with friends or relatives. Third, the data captures a short period of rapid change, which may or may not repeat in the years ahead.
What This Means for the Future
The rise in sheltered homelessness, driven mostly by asylum seekers in a handful of cities and states, shows how federal immigration policy and local decisions can combine to produce big changes quickly. If new arrivals keep coming at the same rates, or if more cities adopt similar welcoming policies, it is possible that these trends might continue. On the other hand, changes to federal laws or local rules could slow or even reverse the increase.
The big challenge for policy makers is how to balance helping those in need—especially families fleeing harm—with making sure local services and budgets can keep up with the demand. As more people arrive, cities may need to find new ways to provide shelter and help, or ask for more funds from state and federal governments.
Methodology
The findings in this analysis use data from several official sources. Most numbers come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which tracks annual homeless counts. Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Harris School reviewed these numbers, pulling out specific information about asylum seekers wherever possible. They also compared growth in the four main locations to national trends, and looked at differences in local rules and shelter network size.
Further details about total costs come from city and state budget reports and direct interviews with city shelter staff, all cited in the source study. Only officially documented numbers and directly reported facts are included.
To learn more about the government’s homeless statistics and tracking, you can visit the HUD Homelessness Data portal, which provides in-depth reports about trends across the nation.
Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
The United States 🇺🇸 saw a 43% rise in sheltered homelessness from 2022 to 2024, a change driven largely by asylum seekers arriving and seeking help in just a few cities and states. New York City stood out with the largest increases, followed by Chicago, Massachusetts 🇺🇸, and Denver, all of which have welcoming or sanctuary policies. These changes happened quickly and brought new challenges, especially for cities facing high costs and limits on shelter space.
As reported by VisaVerge.com, this pattern makes it clear that both federal immigration rules and local policy choices matter when it comes to who ends up in need of shelter, and where they go looking for help. Localities that provide open access see the biggest increases, and must plan ahead for both the needs of new arrivals and the impact on existing services. In the long run, understanding these trends can help government officials, advocacy groups, and the public make better decisions about immigration and homelessness.
For now, the data suggests that to address the growing need for shelter nationwide, leaders at every level should track both migration and shelter use closely, and share lessons about what works in meeting the needs of both asylum seekers and long-term residents in need.
Learn Today
Sheltered Homelessness → Living in an emergency or temporary shelter, not on the street, with official government oversight and support services.
Asylum Seeker → A person who travels to another country to request legal protection due to threats or harm in their home country.
Sanctuary Policy → Local regulations preventing authorities from asking about or acting against individuals’ immigration status when accessing city services.
Right-to-Shelter → A legal guarantee that the government will provide temporary housing to anyone in need, regardless of immigration status.
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) → A U.S. government agency that manages national housing policy and tracks data on homelessness.
This Article in a Nutshell
From 2022 to 2024, the U.S. saw a historic spike in sheltered homelessness, with four cities absorbing most of the growth. The main reason was a surge in asylum seekers drawn by sanctuary policies. This trend challenges local budgets, transforming how cities respond to migration and emergency shelter demands.
— By VisaVerge.com
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