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 The report, from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD), said the number was down slightly from 2014. Many
U.S. cities are confronting a sluggish economic recovery, stagnant
or falling wages among the lowest-income earners and budget
constraints for social welfare programs.
Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Oregon and Hawaii have all recently
declared emergencies over the rise of homelessness, and on Thursday
Seattle's mayor toured a new encampment for his city's dispossessed.
"Despite national estimates, New York City continues to experience
near record homelessness," said Giselle Routhier, a spokeswoman for
the Coalition for the Homeless, an advocacy group.
 According to HUD's latest tally, nearly 565,000 people were living
on the streets in cars, in homeless shelters or in subsidized
transitional housing during a one-night national survey in January.
Nearly one-fourth were aged 18 or under.
That number was down 2 percent from the previous year's count and 11
percent from 2007, HUD said.
The actual U.S. homeless population is likely higher than HUD's
snapshot suggests because many people living without the means to
put a roof over their heads are beyond the reach of the survey,
sleeping on a friend's couch or a relative's basement.
HUD reported separately this month that roughly 1.49 million
individuals used a shelter in 2014, up 4.6 percent from 2013, agency
spokeswoman Heather Fluit said.
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Even as homelessness has waned nationally, 17 states posted
increases, including the two most populous - New York and
California, up nearly 10 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, from
last year.
Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia recorded declines,
with the biggest drops found in Florida, Texas, Georgia, Michigan
and New Jersey.
"I am glad it's trending downward, but a 2 percent change
(nationally) is pretty much flat," said Nan Roman, president of the
National Alliance to End Homelessness, in Washington.
A lack of affordable housing, combined with slumping pay at the
lower end of the U.S. wage scale, has been cited by analysts as a
driver of homelessness in a number of U.S. cities.
"We are 7 million units short of affordable housing for low-income
people – that's a big gap," Roman said.
(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Steve Gorman
and Sandra Maler)
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