Colorado saw one of the biggest increases in the nation in the number of families who were homeless in 2024 — a 134% jump from the previous year, according to a federal report that painted the state’s homelessness crisis in a harsher light than previous regional counts.
The rise put the state among four in the country, including Illinois, Wyoming and Hawaii, where the number of homeless families more than doubled. The results have advocates in Colorado calling for further investment in prevention programs to keep more families from slipping into homelessness.
The news, part of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development annual report on homelessness, made clear that while Colorado made progress in sheltering people who had been living on the streets, it saw a huge increase in families with children who were living in shelters. The count — unlike the Denver area homeless count released a few months ago — includes the thousands of migrants who were sleeping in city-funded hotel shelters last winter.
Here’s a deeper look at the numbers and what the federal report revealed about homelessness in Colorado compared with the rest of the nation.
What does the report say about family homelessness?
The nationwide count, taken on a single night in January 2024, was the highest ever recorded at 771,480 people living outside, in homeless shelters, campgrounds, airports or vehicles. That’s about 23 out of every 10,000 people in the United Streets.
HUD officials pointed to several reasons, including a “national affordable housing crisis,” as well as rising inflation coupled with stagnant wages, and “persisting effects of systemic racism” that have stretched homelessness services. The federal report also pointed to the rise in immigration and public health crises including the COVID pandemic.
Most states, 39 of them plus Washington, D.C., reported increases in the number of families with children who were homeless.
The official counts do not include families “doubled up” with other people, such as living in friends’ basements or moving in with relatives. They also do not include “couch surfing,” which is common for younger people, ages 18-24, who are facing housing instability.
This means the count of families who cannot afford their own home or apartment is likely much higher than the federal count shows.
The states that received the highest numbers of migrants from South America during the past two years were also among those with the highest increases in family homelessness. That included Colorado, Illinois and New York.
Nationwide, homelessness among families with children rose 39% from the 2023 count, while overall homelessness increased 18%.
Nearly 150,000 children were homeless across the nation on the night of the count, which was 32,618 more children than the prior year.
Homelessness among veterans, Black people is improving
The good news was about veteran homelessness, which was one segment of the population to decline — by 8% nationally and 44% in Colorado.
People who identified as Black, African American or African were overrepresented among the homeless population. Black people, who make up about 12% of the U.S. population, accounted for 32% of people who were homeless on the night of the count. This was an improvement from 2023, when Black people made up 37% of the homeless population.
Why is the federal report different from counts in Colorado?
The number of homeless families grew by nearly 50%, to 3,136 from 2,101, according to the seven-county report released in August. That was bad, but not nearly as dramatic as the federal government’s 134% increase.
That’s because the metro report did not include the 4,300 new migrants, mainly from South America, who were sleeping in city-funded shelters on the night of the tally.
The federal report counted 18,715 who are homeless statewide, including 8,519 families.
The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which organizes the annual January count, said that leaving migrants out of the count was the best way to determine “the most accurate information of those experiencing homelessness on a single night.” That 4,300 number has dropped to zero since the city has shut down its seven hotel shelters that had been filled with recent migrants during the height of the immigration.
Instead, the city has focused efforts on an asylum-seeker program that offers rental assistance and job training.
This year, when volunteers spread out in the dark at the end of this month to count people living outside and in shelters, migrants who are homeless will be counted among the rest, the homeless initiative said.
The headline from Denver’s count was that fewer people were living outside, which was expected after Mayor Mike Johnston campaigned on a promise to house 1,000 people by the end of his first year in office. The city’s drop in unsheltered homelessness was among the largest in the nation, in line with Houston and better than Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
There were 1,273 people sleeping outside in Denver on the January night volunteers and outreach workers conducted the count, down from 1,423 a year prior. The regional count includes Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties.
The federal count tallies up so-called “point-in-time counts” that happen across the nation, including in the seven-county Denver metro area, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and other locations across Colorado. HUD requires cities across the country to do the count every year.
The Denver count found that the number of people living in shelters, transitional housing, tents and on the streets of Denver climbed to 6,539 from 5,818 the previous year. In the seven-county metro area, homelessness rose 10% to 9,977 people.
In El Paso County, the overall number of people who were homeless dropped 12% from 2023 to 2024. The tally last January included 1,146 people living on the streets and in shelters. However, the number of families increased 12% — “indicating the widespread nature of the affordable housing crisis,” according to the service provider Rocky Mountain Human Services.
What solutions are in the works to prevent family homelessness?
The migrant crisis during the past two years led to children living in tent encampments and under bridges, a situation not normally seen in the Denver area.
“When we see children in encampments, that’s hard on our collective soul,” said Britta Fisher, CEO of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. “It would happen rarely and our outreach workers are equipped to help address situations where a child is involved but the kind of very visible encampments that included families and children that we have seen over the last couple of years was at a new level for our community.
“And I think when you look at the numbers, you see that the high cost of housing is having a tremendous impact on families.”
The rise in family homelessness — along with the anecdotal evidence that more families, including recent migrants, are doubling up in housing — means that Colorado should increase efforts to prevent homelessness. That includes investing more in rapid rehousing programs, which provide quick rental assistance for people who have recently become homeless, Fisher said.
People who are recently homeless and ask for help at a shelter or homeless service provider, including the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, can receive financial assistance that tapers off over two years.
Families facing the possibility of homelessness also need help with child care, which is why the Coalition has a child care center that provides low-cost care for the children of families who are facing homelessness.
“Income, health and relationship changes are the kinds of stressors to family housing stability and housing stability in general,” Fisher said.
Besides those programs, homeless advocates are working on proposals for the legislative session that begins Wednesday. Those include a “homeless infrastructure” bill that would, among other things, put standards in place to measure homelessness and affordable housing efforts across counties.
“It is something we need to take seriously as a state,” Fisher said.