(Via HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report)

While nation saw an overall decline in homeless between 2015 and 2016, the District went in the opposite direction, recording one of the biggest increases in the country.

At 1,052 more homeless people, D.C. was behind only California and Washington state in terms of the absolute increase in the population, according to a new report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that used figures from a point-in-time count taken in January. But with a much smaller general population, D.C.’s increase amounted to 14.4 percent in comparison to 2.1 percent in California and 7.3 percent in Washington.

The District also saw the largest increase in the country in homeless families with children between 2015 and 2016, according to the report.

Addressing the growing family homelessness crisis has been among the city government’s highest priorities since 8-year-old Relisha Rudd disappeared from the family shelter at D.C. General in 2014. After significant revision to a proposal put forth by Mayor Muriel Bowser, the D.C. Council passed a plan in May to close the dilapidated facility and replace it with smaller shelters in seven wards. Though it remains a major achievement, the new shelters are unlikely to open before the winter of 2020, and when they do, they will only be replacing beds in the shelter system—not adding them.

The ongoing, and worsening, affordable housing crisis has exacerbated a trenchant issue in the nation’s capital, and it is reflected in longer views of homelessness data. Between 2007 and 2016, D.C. was third behind New York and Massachusetts in terms of the absolute increase in the homeless population—and far and away the highest in terms of percentage (191 percent; Massachusetts was second at 92 percent), according to the HUD report.

In a brighter spot of news, the District has one of the lowest rates of homeless people who aren’t being sheltered: less than 4 percent. California, which has the biggest unsheltered homeless population in the country, is at 66.6 percent. By law, D.C. guarantees shelter on freezing nights, and has recently extended it to the rest of the year.

Annual Homeless Assessment Report by Rachel Sadon on Scribd