One unknown in Tennessee during the pandemic has been how the state’s homeless population has changed — but new figures out Tuesday show a substantial rise since 2020.
Just over 10,500 individuals were counted as homeless on one night in January 2022, according to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
That’s 45% higher than the same survey in 2020, and ranks as the third-largest percentage increase of any state. In January 2020, 7,256 Tennesseans were counted as homeless.
Two areas of Tennessee — surrounding Jackson and the southeast area near Chattanooga — ranked high for the percentage of unhoused people living unsheltered, meaning on the streets or in parks or vehicles.
The nationwide census is gathered by service providers and volunteers who fan out across city streets, shelters and encampments. While the count has its limitations, it is used for funding allocations and considered to be a consistent bellwether.
The latest jump is in contrast to Tennessee’s longer-term trend, which had seen the unhoused population fall by about a third in the past 15 years.
In Nashville, the point-in-time count has shown a downward trend since at least 2016, and figures provided earlier this year counted 1,916 individuals in shelters, encampments or on the streets.
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