WASHINGTON — Homelessness in the United States fell by its largest margin in more than a decade last year, according to new federal figures announced on 6 November 2026. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said its 2026 nationwide Point-in-Time count found 698,425 people homeless on a single night in January, down 6.3 percent on the year before. HUD described the result as "the largest decrease in homelessness on record in American history." NPR, reporting on the figures, said the homeless population dropped by more than 6 percent — roughly 49,000 fewer people without housing — and called it the second year in a row that homelessness has declined, after a smaller drop the year before. An independent analysis of the same count, commissioned by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, estimated a similar 6.7 percent decline. Yet nearly 700,000 people still live in shelters or on the streets, significantly more than before the COVID-19 pandemic. The a...