President Trump seems close to declaring a war on homelessness or, depending on whom you ask, a war on the homeless. Top White House officials have spent the past two weeks in California studying possible changes. But what do we actually know about the population they hope to target?
Homeless America has more residents than some rural states — more than 550,000 Americans experience homelessness on a typical night, and 1.4 million will spend some time in a shelter in a given year. But it’s more dispersed than any state will ever be, and significantly harder to track, to research and, ultimately, to help.