The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) just released its first Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress, marking the first comprehensive study of the homeless community HUD has undertaken since 1984.

The study is also the first analysis to move beyond traditional point-in-time counts, which advocates and the government claim are notoriously unreliable, to looking at changes in homelessness over time. Beyond quantifying the homeless community, the report provides details about the community’s demographics and looks at how it is using shelters.

The report is based on a new system called Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS), which has been implemented in 80 randomly chosen and geographically diverse communities. This system tracks how many people are using emergency shelters or transitional housing. Although this study was limited to a period between February and April of 2005, HUD hopes to continue to use the system to identify long-range trends in homelessness. Since HMIS only tracks sheltered individuals and a limited number of communities, it was used in addition to point-in-time counts conducted by organizations in thousands of cities all over the United States.

The study found that approximately 754,000 people are homeless on an average night and that approximately 704,000 used emergency shelters or transitional housing at least once between February and April.

In looking at the demographics of the population using shelters, the study reported that 65% of the adults are male, while 35% are female. It also showed that 66% are individuals while 34% are families with children. Racial minorities comprise 59% of the homeless population, and 19% of the population are veterans. According to the report, 75% of homeless people are located in large cities, while only 25% percent live in rural and suburban areas.

In D.C. alone, HUD reported that 5,518 people are homeless on any given night, including 566 families with children. Of these 5,518, over 800 are severely mentally ill and about 1,000 have substance abuse addictions. Over 300 are victims of domestic violence and over 400 are veterans.

Alphonso Jackson, HUD secretary, said that it is important to collect these figures so that we can know “not only how many people are homeless, but also what their needs are."

“Understanding homelessness is a necessary step to ending it, especially for those persons living with a chronic condition such as mental illness, an addiction or a physical disability," Jackson said.

Although Jackson noted that the length and scope of the study were limited and focused primarily at revealing characteristics of the sheltered homeless communities, he added that it provides direction and a framework for future studies to learn more about the characteristics and needs of the entire homeless community.