Homelessness in Philadelphia increases for third consecutive year

The number of homeless Philadelphians increased for the third consecutive year, according to the annual point-in-time homelessness count conducted by the Office of Homeless Services.

The count was conducted in January and includes unsheltered people and those living in emergency shelters, safe haven and transitional housing. In 2024, the total number of homeless people reached 5,191, up from 4,725 the previous year — a 10% increase.

Mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the annual point-in-time count is a snapshot of homelessness on one day in January.

Philadelphia’s count calls on volunteers, armed with clipboards, socks, and gloves, to spread across the city interviewing and cataloging people who are homeless.

Numbers are still below pre-pandemic levels, when the number of homeless Philadelphia residents hovered around 5,600, but exceeded 5,000 for the first time since 2020. And, at 976 people, the number of unsheltered people represents a 38% increase from the year before, and a 16% increase from the pre-pandemic count in the winter of 2020. It’s the highest number of unsheltered Philadelphians recorded since at least 2018, according to city data.

High – but declining – poverty, the opioid epidemic and a lack of affordable housing are to blame for the rising numbers of unsheltered people, according to a summary of the city’s winter count.

“Poverty remains a factor, irrespective of poverty trends/trajectories,” said Sherylle Linton Jones, spokesperson for the Office of Homeless Services.

More than 20% of homeless people had either been evicted or displaced for another reason in the preceding 90 days, showing how impactful an issue affordable housing is in Philadelphia.

Both Center City and Kensington saw a 23% increase in the number of unsheltered people living there compared to the previous year. The 337 unsheltered residents in Kensington represent the highest number since at least 2015, according to city data. The count took place before the city began clearing homeless encampments in Kensington as part of Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s plan to end the neighborhood’s open-air drug market.

Other neighborhoods that saw sharp increases in the rate of unsheltered homelessness include parts of North Philadelphia excluding Kensington, and parts of South Philadelphia, where the number of unsheltered people as much as tripled in some areas.

In addition to increases in the unsheltered population, the rate of sheltered homeless people increased by 5% between 2023, which the city attributes to “more individuals presenting for shelter,” according to its report. Emergency shelters were home to 729 children. Transitional housing programs housed 181 children.

Philadelphia’s rising homelessness comes after the office overspent its budget by almost $15 million, pressured by a mandate to keep people sheltered.

Parker this month appointed Cheryl Hill, a former senior vice president with Project HOME, an anti-homeless nonprofit, to lead the city’s Office of Homeless Services. Hill took over the office from Liz Hersh, who had led the office for nearly eight years and left at the end of 2023 to join a national nonprofit. Former Mayor Jim Kenney appointed David Holloman, who served as OHS chief of staff, as the organization’s interim director following Hersh’s departure.

In March, Parker’s administration also moved a number of homeless people living around the Philadelphia International Airport in the far southwest section of the city. At the time of the point-in-time count, 43 unsheltered people were living at the airport, up from 19 people the year before.

Philadelphia’s numbers are in lockstep with a nationwide trend of rising homelessness. In 2023, homelessness grew 12% to the highest level ever recorded. More than an estimated 650,000 people are homeless in the United States, the largest number since the country started tracking the annual point-in-time survey in 2007. The rising homelessness crisis led the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to rule that municipalities could ban sleeping in public places, effectively outlawing unsheltered homelessness.

Philadelphia’s OHS condemned the Supreme Court decision, saying “a person who is experiencing homelessness and does not have any place but outdoors to sleep should not be classified as a criminal.”