Homelessness Decreases In Milwaukee, Increases Nationally

A homeless tent encampment on the edge of MacArthur Square. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County is bucking the statewide and national trend of increasing homelessness.

Between January 2023 and January 2024, the number of unsheltered people living on the street in Milwaukee decreased by an estimated 36.4%, based on the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development‘s annual Point in Time Count.

The annual count also found the overall number of homeless, both sheltered (824) and unsheltered (61), decreased by 16%.

Meanwhile, the same count revealed an 18% increase in homelessness nationwide and an 11% increase across Wisconsin. The nationwide statistic was affected, to some degree, by communities reporting asylum seekers in emergency shelters as homeless and by the more than 5,000 people sleeping in emergency shelters as a result of the devastating Maui fires in 2023, according to HUD.

HUD’s annual point in time count — conducted in January every year — is an imperfect measurement of homelessness, but it provides an annual standardized count of homelessness across the nation. The count tallies the number of people who are unsheltered and on the street, as well as those in emergency shelter and transitional housing.

The HUD count is conducted during the last week of January each year by more than a dozen local public agencies, publicly funded organizations and non-profits across the county. In Milwaukee, on Jan. 24, the count found 61 people living on the street, 641 in emergency shelters and 183 in transitional housing.

In 2022, the county recorded just 17 unsheltered people; the lowest per capita count in the nation. It was a 70% reduction from 2021. By 2023, the number spiked back up to 96, as pandemic-era aids and rental assistance funds were spent down, revealing once again the economic and social toll of the pandemic.

Milwaukee County had made significant progress on housing and homelessness over the decade prior, and the number of unsheltered people remained lower in 2023 than a decade ago. The rise in recent years is likely attributable to the economic shocks of the pandemic, according to a 2024 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, a non-partisan public policy research organization.

“The rise in homelessness likely was driven – at least initially – by the layoffs and economic hardships that accompanied the pandemic and, more recently, by rising housing costs that arrived in the wake of COVID-19,” the forum report stated.

Milwaukee County has adopted a housing-first approach to housing and homeless services, which means the Housing Division attempts to place individuals facing homelessness in housing without any conditions like sobriety or employment. The idea is that these challenges are more straightforward to tackle once someone is housed. The agency is also located within the county’s human services bureaucracy, leaving it uniquely positioned to connect those individuals with mental health or employment services.

The latest point in time count shows the number of people in transitional housing increased modestly while the number in emergency shelters decreased. HUD defines transitional housing as any shelter or housing that provides a stay of one to 24 months and includes supportive services.

HUD released the January 2024 report Friday.

“No American should face homelessness, and the Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring every family has access to the affordable, safe, and quality housing they deserve,” said HUD Acting Secretary Adrianne Todman. “While this data is nearly a year old, and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness. We know what works and our success in reducing veteran homelessness by 55.2% since 2010 shows that.”

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