America’s unsheltered population increased by 17.7% from 2023 to 2024. Nearly 30,000 individuals who reported living under a roof in 2023 reported sleeping out on the streets in 2024. This is not a dramatic increase from years past. From 2010 to 2023, there was an average increase of about 17% of homeless people on the street every year .
The homeless crisis is coming to a terminal point in America. Every major city has reported a steady rise in their unsheltered populations. Denver in particular has seen a dramatic increase on this front in the last decade. In 2023, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless released its annual “State of Homelessness Report.” In the report, the Coalition stated that, according to the PIT count, Colorado saw a 31% increase in homeless individuals from 2022 to 2023.
Denver is one of many cities witnessing extreme increases in their homeless counts year after year. The United States needs real reform policies that will directly aid the shelter crisis in America.
Last November, Donald Trump was elected to office. This year Trump will be responsible for addressing the national shelter crisis.
Trump does not want to grapple with the deep reasons behind homelessness in America. Instead, his plan is to heighten police presence and make street camping an arrestable crime. Trump does not want to fix the shelter problem. He wants to make the “homeless problem” disappear.
“Violators of these bans will be arrested,” Trump said, “but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they’re willing to be rehabilitated.”
Trump’s plan to “solve” homelessness in America is to arrest first, then get this vulnerable community the help they need. Increasing arrests is not a solution for homelessness. It is simply kicking the can further down the road. Trump has proven in both his first presidency and his campaign promises that he continues to take the “easy” way out of most problems. Instead of addressing the causal effects of homelessness, Trump opts to forcibly remove “vagrants” from the street.
Here is why it doesn’t work. Our current economic and social systems create an unhoused cycle in which many individuals find themselves trapped. This cycle is called “chronic homelessness.” If an individual with some sort of disability — physical, mental, or drug-related — has lived on the street for more than a year, they are significantly more likely to stay on the streets. Being arrested often enforces this cycle; a criminal record prevents opportunities to get off the streets.
Instead of heightening police presence on the streets, our government should institute public projects that directly look to solve the root of the problem. Public housing projects that offer permanent supportive housing have been proven to reduce the risk of chronic homelessness. Other government initiatives such as public health care and rehabilitation programs have been successful in getting individuals off the street.
Until the United States creates institutional care for the unhoused population, it will be community groups and philanthropic organizations that will continue to attempt to keep our homeless safe. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and the Denver Rescue Mission are two wonderful Denver-based projects that have been working with the community for decades.
If you are interested in being a part of the direct action to protect the homeless population of Denver, please consider coming to Colectivo de Paz’s CARE program on Saturdays. In the Community Commons kitchen, which can be found on the first floor near the elevators, Colectivo operates every other Saturday at noon to create meals for the local unhoused community.
The first CARE meeting will be at noon on Jan. 12 and will consistently meet on a biweekly basis. If this is something you are passionate about, stop by and join the team.
