Research & Statistics

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research has updated its comprehensive profile of subsidized housing in the United States. The Picture of Subsidized Households 2008 data set describes the nearly 5 million households living in HUD-subsidized housing. The programs covered - public housing, Housing Choice Vouchers, Section 8 project-based housing, New Construction and Substantial Rehabilitation, and Section 202 and 811 Supportive Housing - provide subsidies that reduce rents for low-income tenants who meet eligibility requirements.

This report by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty reviews state level prevention efforts, including an overview of how their programs work, funding sources and their capacity relative to need, and their impact. Between 2.5-3.5 million people were homeless each year, living in shelters, transitional housing or public places. This link opens a PDF document.

This report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness examines key strategies that communities are using to address family housing needs.  It presents the experiences of several communities that successfully reduced family homelessness.  The report also identifies six strategies that are important to ending homelessness.  The report can be downloaded in PDF format.

A record 10,552 fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal year 2008, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The report shows that a large portion of the complaints, 44 percent, were filed by persons with disabilities.

The LIHTC database contains information on nearly 29,225 projects and over 1,670,000 housing units across the country.

The United States Interagency Council on Homelessness has released a comprehensive federal plan that will serve as a roadmap to prevent and end homelessness. The plan notes that in 2009 forty-three percent of adults without families in shelters or transitional housing had a disability. The plan calls for ending Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015, and to ending homelessness among children, family and youth by 2020. Opening Doors includes strategies based on the fact that housing, health, education and human service programs must be coordinated to end homelessness. The plan also calls for increased access to stable and affordable housing and permanent supportive housing. This link opens a 74 page PDF document. For more information watch a video of the White House announcement about the report.

Annual report on the SSH program, which works to help prevent or reduce chronic homelessness by funding services for individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness. Section 520A of the Public Health Service Act authorized the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide services through Supportive Housing program grants. This link opens a PDF document.

The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) has released its annual State of Fair Housing Report for 2009. It highlights the agency's progress in enforcing the Fair Housing Act, identifies challenges that remain and shows HUD's commitment to ending housing discrimination. The report covers the last full fiscal year of HUD's complaint investigations and fair housing activities. Discrimination based on a person's disability status continues to be the largest-single category for complaints. Of the 10,242 complaints filed with HUD and its fair housing partners during fiscal year 2009, 44 percent alleged disability discrimination. The complete 133 page report is available in PDF format.

This report includes 12 papers presented at the second National Symposium on Homelessness Research. Two themes from the symposium showed how homelessness research and practice have evolved since the 1998 symposium. These include an increase in homeless assistance resources across all levels of government and among local providers and consumers, and an increased emphasis on collecting and using data to understand better the characteristics of homelessness. This link opens a PDF document.