The number of homeless people in the U.S. has increased by around 11 percent in 2023—easily the biggest increase since the government began tracking comparable records, according to The Wall Street Journal. Since 2007, the previous largest increase was a spike of 2.7 percent recorded in 2019 (when discounting an artificially inflated increase last year caused by pandemic disruption to counting). The Journal examined data from 300 entities across the U.S. that track the number of homeless people in specific areas, finding more than 577,000 homeless people so far. The single biggest factor contributing to the rise, according to advocates for the homeless, is the high cost of housing, while shortages of affordable renting units and the opioid crisis were also cited as aggravating causes.