By Cameron Perra, Social Impact Manager

Housing insecurity is a complex issue that manifests in a variety of ways. The most consistent data on the issue in the United States is compiled by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and show that over 20 million households experienced severe issues related to housing in 2021. In 2022, nearly 27% of renter households were severely cost-burdened, meaning that they spent more than 50% of their income on housing. Housing insecurity is a major and complex problem that merits nuanced language to capture the range of outcomes created by programs working to solve it.

When considering housing insecurity, many think specifically about homelessness. Over 650,000 people were found to be experiencing homelessness in the most recent Point-in-Time count from HUD, an annual snapshot of the number of individuals in shelters, temporary housing, and in unsheltered settings.

Housing insecurity, however, is a more complex problem than is conveyed by counts of the unhoused. The millions of households with housing-related issues struggle with inconsistent or unsafe housing as well as risk of losing their current living situation. To capture the multiple dimensions of housing insecurity and the impact of social organizations working to resolve them, we break Housing & Homelessness into six key outcomes. These outcomes draw distinctions between what housing-focused programs are working towards and recognize that the sector is not a monolith.

Read more about the outcomes and what they look like in practice in this white paper.

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