New York’s homelessness rate sits at 72.8 people per 10,000 residents. Mississippi’s sits at 4.2.

The visualization above shows a gap of more than 17 times, the widest distance between any two states in the country. 

This is according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau, as reported by USAFacts. 

The figures come from HUD’s Point-in-Time count, a single-night census of sheltered and unsheltered homeless people conducted every January across all 50 states and Washington, DC. 

TL;DR

• New York’s homelessness rate is more than 17 times higher than Mississippi’s, the widest gap in the country.
• The District of Columbia, not a state at all, actually tops every real state.
• Expensive rent doesn’t reliably predict a high homelessness rate, and cheap rent doesn’t reliably predict a low one.

Highest Homeless Population By State

New York isn’t actually first on the list. The District of Columbia is, at 74.1 per 10,000, but DC isn’t a state, and comparing it to the other 50 entries stretches the comparison. 

Every genuine state on this list blends dense cities with sparsely populated countryside into one average rate. 

DC has no rural land to dilute its number, so ranking it alongside Wyoming or Montana is closer to comparing one city’s rate to an entire state’s than a fair 51-way contest. New York’s rate of 72.8 is the highest among states.

Where Rent Explains the Gap, and Where It Doesn’t

Part of the story tracks with housing costs. California, which posts the sixth-highest homelessness rate at 46.2, also has the highest median rent on the list, $2,104 a month. 

Mississippi, at the very bottom for homelessness, also has one of the cheapest rents, $990. Vermont has the fourth-highest homelessness rate in the country, 52.5 per 10,000, and a median rent of just $1,319, lower than 20 other states with far lower homelessness rates. 

Virginia has the opposite mismatch: comparatively high rent ($1,646) paired with one of the lowest homelessness rates in the country (8.2), ranking 47th out of 51. 

Texas tells a similar story: a $1,475 median rent alongside a rate of just 8.8. Rent alone doesn’t determine where homelessness is highest.

A Seasonal Count, and a Coastal Pattern

Four of the eight states with the highest homelessness rates sit on the West Coast or in the Pacific: Oregon, Hawaii, California, and Washington. Climate likely plays a real role here, and not just through the cost of living.

HUD’s count happens in January, the coldest month of the year. Someone sleeping unsheltered in a mild climate is both more likely to survive the count and more likely to be visibly outdoors when counters arrive than someone facing the same situation in a colder state.

That timing may push visible, countable rates higher in warm-weather states relative to cold ones, independent of how much underlying housing hardship actually exists in each place.

ELI5

New York has a much higher rate of homelessness than Mississippi, more than 17 times higher. 

Washington, DC actually ranks even higher, but it’s a city, not a state, so that’s not a fair comparison. Expensive rent explains some of the pattern, but not all of it.

Some cheap states have high rates, and some expensive states have low ones.

Source:

Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau via USAFacts