Yesterday, the National Alliance to End Homelessness released its annual report on the State of Homelessness in America — and the news for the District and the country as a whole is not good. According to the study, D.C. joined 31 states which experienced an increase in its overall homeless population. Meanwhile, the homeless population in the United States rose by 20,000 people between 2008 and 2009, a three percent increase. Additionally, an uptick in the number of chronically homeless individuals is the first recorded by the Alliance after that figure had decreased every year between 2005 and 2008. According to the Alliance, four out of every ten homeless people in the United States were living “on the street, in a car, or in another place not intended for human habitation.”

In total, 6,228 individuals were reported as “homeless” in Washington, of which 2,294 are identified as part of a family.