In 2025, the National Alliance to End Homelessness found that homelessness in the United States increased 18% from the year prior, with an estimated 771,480 people living on the streets.
And in the first year of his second presidency, Donald Trump introduced an executive order called “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” It aims to increase the punishment of people living on the street through heavy policing and institutionalization.
Issued on the heels of a Supreme Court ruling that makes it legal for cities and states to ban people from sleeping and camping in public places — even when they have nowhere else to go — this move pressures local governments to enforce punishments that are proven to be ineffective in actually reducing homelessness.
A recent study out of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington found that there was actually a 2.2% average increase in unsheltered homelessness in cities that implemented criminalization ordinances, compared to those that didn’t.
Homelessness prevention, advocacy, and legal groups have challenged Trump’s executive order in court, though it is unclear what will come of it. And localized criminalization ordinances are increasing in cities across the country.
Homelessness requires swift and strategic action to confront, but leaders in the space urge those in power to lean into proven methods of success — not “cruel and unusual punishments” that “rely on the false idea that poverty is synonymous with criminality,” as Southern Poverty Law Center CEO Margaret Huang puts it.
As advocates continue their fight, here’s a refresher on the solutions that we know are effective in preventing and reducing homelessness.
3 Proven Solutions to Reduce Homelessness
Housing First
“Housing First” is an approach that addresses homelessness by providing permanent and stable housing to people experiencing homelessness before anything else, removing sobriety mandates and employment barriers.
It’s guided by the idea that having somewhere to live is a basic necessity, and once that need is met, people are more likely to find success and stability in other areas, especially when they are given supportive services like counseling, job training, and healthcare.
Evidence from a systematic review of 26 studies shared by the National Low Income Housing Coalition indicates that Housing First programs decreased homelessness by 88% and improved housing stability by 41%, compared to Treatment First programs.
“We can end homelessness. This is an amazing, complicated, difficult problem, but I want people to know we can actually solve it,” said Tom Litwicki, CEO of Old Pueblo Community Services, a Housing First nonprofit in Arizona.
“We don't have to live with this. This is not normal, and we can fix it.”
Economic Stability
In a number of cities and states across the U.S., pilot programs providing direct cash transfers to populations at risk of homelessness have categorically kept them from living on the streets.
In Oregon, for example, a state program gave youth transitioning out of foster care and experiencing homelessness $1,000 every month for two years.
At the end of the project’s first phase, 91% of participants reported living in stable housing, according to Street Roots.
In addition to supporting vulnerable groups, these preventative programs have been proven to be a more cost-effective measure for local governments.
“Intervening before somebody experiences homelessness by paying for their rent or covering whatever cost they need to stay housed … is cheaper than it is to address homelessness once it occurs,” Daniel Soucy, a research analyst at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, told Johns Hopkins University.
Removing Barriers to Housing
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the country has a shortage of about 7.1 million homes that are affordable and available to renters with extremely low incomes.
To build more affordable housing units, states and municipalities must reduce barriers, like restrictive zoning, that keep them from being built.
But barriers must also be removed for renters. According to the Legal Defense Fund, housing discrimination continues to keep people from finding a place to live, with the federal government receiving over 8,000 complaints of discrimination based on race, disability, sex, religion, and more between 2023 and 2024 alone.
As solutions, experts suggest funding fair housing enforcement and removing restrictions placed on those with criminal backgrounds, a history of chronic homelessness, or low incomes.
“The saddest part of all is that [discrimination] is an unnecessary barrier that people transitioning out of homelessness are facing,” John Paul Marosy of the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center told Colorado Public Media.
“Just imagine you're out on the street, you waited, you finally get your housing voucher, now you're in the housing market, and the door is closed in your face by a landlord who is unlawfully refusing to accept your housing voucher. That's why we need to end unlawful discrimination.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2026 Home Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header image by Brett Sayles via Pexels
