(The Center Square) – Colorado has recently seen a spike in the number of families with children experiencing homelessness.
Colorado saw a 134% increase (4,878 people to 8,519 people) in the number of people in families with children experiencing homelessness from January 2023 to January 2024, according to the 2024 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress conducted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Colorado experienced the third-largest increase in the United States, behind Illinois (234.3%) and Hawaii (187%). Chicago is facing a migrant crisis that has overwhelmed its shelter system. Meanwhile, Hawaii has long struggled with exorbitant housing costs.
In Colorado, the increasing homelessness among people in families with children also comes as the Denver housing market becomes increasingly unaffordable, according to the Common Sense Institute.
Denver and its neighboring communities have seen demand for housing skyrocket while builders fail to keep up.
“Denver is mired in a deeply unaffordable housing market, with an estimated housing unit deficit ranging up to 18,910 units,” Common Sense Institute wrote in a September 2024 report. “Over the past decade, the number of hours required to work at the average hourly wage to afford the mortgage on a newly purchased average-priced home in Denver has skyrocketed by 176%, increasing from 38 to 105 hours. Although wages in Denver have risen by 44% during this period, they have significantly lagged behind the rise in housing costs.”
This increase in homelessness for people in families with children comes despite homelessness decreasing in Colorado from 2023 to 2024 by 5.6% (602 people).
The increase in Colorado came at a time when, nationally, the homelessness rate increased. The country saw a 39% increase in people in families with children experiencing homelessness, compared to an 18% increase for the general population.
The HUD report cited several factors for these increases in homelessness, including the rise among people in families with children.
It cited some economic factors and the end of the child tax credit’s temporary increase to $3,000 annually, along with so-called “systemic racism.”
“Several factors likely contributed to this historically high number. Our worsening national affordable housing crisis, rising inflation, stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism have stretched homelessness services systems to their limits,” the report said. “Additional public health crises, natural disasters that displaced people from their homes, rising numbers of people immigrating to the U.S., and the end to homelessness prevention programs put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the end of the expanded child tax credit, have exacerbated this already stressed system.”