Climate change has been identified by researchers as a top factor in year-to-year homelessness spikes in the United States.
A study published last week in Jama Network Open pinpointed climate-related damage and eviction moratoria policies as key contributors to sudden homelessness surges from 2019 through 2024, surpassing factors like unemployment and substance abuse.
The average rise in homelessness in a typical state was about 11 percent in 2022. That number would have dropped to roughly 8 percent without property loss from natural disasters, according to researchers with the University of California, Los Angeles, and Johns Hopkins University.
“On average, those things are going to go together,” said Kathryn Leifheit, assistant professor of health policy and management at UCLA. “Where you see a large increase in homelessness, more often than not, you’re going to see also a climate-related event in the preceding year.”
