People Experiencing Homelessness

A tiny home in a residential neighborhood.

What Happened to the Tiny Homes Revolution?

Tiny homes were one of the hot button topics of the previous decade. In 2023? Not so much.

August 14, 2023 - Grist

A light rail train waits at the Downtown Long Beach station with a sign that reads “Long Beach” to declare its route to riders.

Long Beach Residents Oppose Proposed Homeless Services Hub Near Rail Terminus

L.A. Metro’s “end-of-the-line” policy forces people experiencing homeless off transit every night at the same time and location. A proposed hub would provide services a few stops before the end of the line in Long Beach.

March 22, 2023 - Long Beach Post

Skid Row Los Angeles

Financial Dire Straights for L.A.’s Skid Row Housing Trust

Terrible news about the financial situation at one of L.A.’s most prominent homeless service providers broke earlier this month.

February 22, 2023 - Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles

New All-Affordable Zone Proposed for L.A.’s Skid Row

A Los Angeles Times editorial argues that Skid Row’s future should learn from the mistakes of the past.

February 16, 2023 - Los Angeles Times

Arizona Canal

HUD Grants Total $315 Million for Continuum of Care for the Unhoused

An unprecedented federal grant program, announced earlier this month, will support continuum of care for the unhoused in unsheltered and rural settings.

February 8, 2023 - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Subway Homeless

‘Housing First’ Pilot Launched in New York City

The city has started small with a “Housing First” approach to homelessness—moving 80 people experiencing homelessness into supportive housing in recent months.

November 30, 2022 - City Limits

Public Toilet

San Francisco’s Tenderloin Makes a Compelling Case for Public Restroom Programs

San Francisco’s Pit Stop program, which provides public restroom facilities to vulnerable and unhoused residents, has helped contribute to a decline in feces-related service calls in the Tenderloin.

September 7, 2022 - San Francisco Chronicle

Tents fpor people experiencing homelessness are surrounded by signs that impart messages of resistance to change.

People’s Park—Symbol of Berkeley’s Storied Past—Temporarily Cleared and Fenced Off for Development

A few days after a judge’s ruling cleared three pending lawsuits blocking the development of People’s Park, the unhoused people living in the park were cleared and fence surrounds the site. Protestors took back the park within a day.

August 4, 2022 - Berkeleyside

A homeless encampment fills a sidewalk in front of a Sizzler restaurant advertising Thanksgiving dinner.

L.A.’s New Homelessness Plan: Ban Camping Near Schools, Daycares

The city of Los Angeles is scrambling to keep up with its growing homeless population, and increasingly leaning on punitive measures in response to the crisis.

June 1, 2022 - Los Angeles Times

Homelessness

Fewer People Experiencing Homelessness in San Francisco

In a first since 2015, the number of people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco declined from the year prior, according to preliminary analysis of the city’s most recent Point-in-Time count.

May 17, 2022 - San Francisco Chronicle

Tent City Bay Area

Oakland to Consider 1,000-Room Homeless Shelter

Oakland, California, will consider a former Army base as the location for its largest shelter as its population of people experiencing homelessness grows.

May 9, 2022 - The San Francisco Chronicle

A group of socially distanced tents for the homeless are set up on a parking lot in San Francisco's Civic Center.

HUD Credits COVID-19 Relief for Improved Homelessness Numbers

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's "2021 Annual Homeless Assessment Report" comes with significant caveats about partial data and changing homeless shelter practices.

February 8, 2022 - U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

An aerial image of the city of Brookings, Oregon, a small town located on the Pacific Coast.

Lawsuit Challenges Zoning to Limit Church Soup Kitchens

Local residents of Brookings, Oregon say a local church's meal services during the pandemic were attracting crime and vagrancy, so the city passed a zoning ordinance that limited the number of days the church could serve meals to two a week.

February 2, 2022 - Reason

California Homeless

Study: At Least 1,500 Unhoused Died on the Streets of L.A. During the Pandemic

New research represents the first detailed picture of death among people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.

December 2, 2021 - The Guardian

A group of socially distanced tents for the homeless are set up on a parking lot in San Francisco's Civic Center.

Cities Need More Public Bathrooms–Well Beyond the Pandemic

COVID-19 laid bare the dismal state of public bathrooms in America, and some cities stepped up to add more facilities. But why remove them while the need remains?

August 30, 2021 - Diana Ionescu

Washington D.C.

New Homeless Plan for D.C. Aims for Post-Pandemic Reset

Washington, D.C. is looking to build on some past success, and recover from some setbacks, with the adoption of a new plan to address homelessness called Homeward 2.0.

July 19, 2021 - DCist

Homeless encampments on the Venice Beach Ocean Front Walk.

Locals Vehemently Oppose Venice Beach Homeless Housing

The controversies about homelessness in what was once a beach community full of hippies and surfers has boiled over in response to a large proposed development of supportive housing on a surface parking lot owned by the city.

July 14, 2021 - Curbed

A row of motels on a wide street in Fresno, California

Beleaguered Project Homekey Credited With Local Success

California's Project Homekey has been a boon for homelessness support services as well as the economic and living conditions on a corridor in Fresno known as Motel Drive.

July 11, 2021 - CALmatters

People experiencing homelessness

When It Comes to Ending Homelessness, What Does 'Functional Zero' Really Mean?

"The idea of the word ‘functional’ in front of ‘zero’ is a reaction to the misperception that ending homelessness means no one ever experiences homelessness again."

June 16, 2021 - Next City

Motel 6 hotel room in Braintree, Massachusetts in 2015

Oregon's Version of Project Roomkey Offers Housing to Those Who Lost Homes to Wildfires

The program funds the purchase of hotels for housing people experiencing homelessness as housing costs in the state continue to rise.

June 15, 2021 - High Country News

News from HUD User

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Call for Speakers

Mpact Transit + Community

New Updates on PD&R Edge

HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.