This Interactive Map Shows How Each State Stacks Up In Terms Of Homelessness

The trends and tendencies these maps reveal might not be exactly what you’re expecting.

by Laura Allan, Movoto (excerpts)

...There were a few states in particular which definitely are headed in the right direction. For example, over the past five years, Alabama has gone from the 21st lowest homeless population per 100,000 people to the fourth lowest. And this wasn’t the only state doing things right.

In 2014, Mississippi had the lowest number of homeless people per 100,000, as it did for the previous three years. Indiana also did similarly well over the years.

The biggest success story is probably Louisiana, which went from having the 42nd lowest homelessness per 100,000 people in the nation to the eighth lowest over the span of just five years. It just goes to show that things are quickly getting better.

Of course, there were a few states that didn’t exactly fare so well. Nevada consistently had a high homeless population, as did Hawaii and New York....

In order to get these different maps, we turned to the past five years’ PIT data, also known as point in time data. This data from the HUD Exchange allowed us to examine statewide homelessness statistics in the following areas:

• Total Homeless Population
• Sheltered Homeless Population
• Unsheltered Homeless Population

We ranked each state for the past five years specifically in terms of total homeless population per 100,000 people. We also looked at the sheltered homeless population vs. the unsheltered homeless population in the year 2014, just for comparison. From there, we color coded the maps to show which places had the biggest and smallest homeless population per 100,000 people each year, to see what trends were visible.

Hawaii #1 in Homelessness:

487 Homeless per 100K residents = #1

219 Unsheltered homeless per 100K residents = #1

269 Sheltered homeless per 100K residents = #3