WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The number of people in the United States experiencing homelessness reached a new record this year, with lingering inflation and high housing prices among likely drivers, a government report said Friday.

An estimated 771,480 people were homeless on a single night in January 2024, rising 18 percent from 2023, said the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in an annual assessment.

This translates to about 23 in every 10,000 people in the country, home to the world’s biggest economy.

The uptick came as households felt the pressure from housing costs, with the median rent for January 2024 being 20 percent higher than that in January 2021, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Apart from housing costs, the HUD report flagged “stagnating wages among middle- and lower-income households, and the persisting effects of systemic racism” as other factors.

Other contributing issues included natural disasters that displaced people, rising immigration and an end to homelessness prevention programs introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While this data is nearly a year old, and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing, it is critical that we focus on evidence-based efforts to prevent and end homelessness,” said HUD agency head Adrianne Todman in a statement.

Nearly 150,000 children experienced homelessness on a single night this year — a 33 percent jump over 2023 — the report said.

Children under the age of 18 were the age group seeing the biggest surge in homelessness between 2023 and 2024.

Individuals identifying as Black, African American or African remain overrepresented among homeless people as well, the report said.

While people identifying as Black form 12 percent of the United States’ population, they made up 32 percent of people experiencing homelessness.

Those in families with children saw the biggest single-year rise in homelessness, the report said, adding that migration had “a particularly notable impact on family homelessness.”

Homelessness among veterans, however, fell to the lowest number on record.