Cities falling behind dealing with homelessness

Axios - Homelessness in the U.S. has increased by 25% since 2017 — and cities can't build shelters fast enough, Axios' Jessica Boehm, Erin Alberty and Esteban L. Hernandez report. Even after spending billions of federal COVID dollars on services and physical space, cities are still way behind — especially in the West, where encampments are sprawling. Meanwhile, eviction filing rates have returned to, or exceeded, pre-pandemic levels in many U.S. cities as housing costs rise. Only 181,786 emergency shelter beds were available for an estimated 421,392 people experiencing homelessness nationwide as of January 2022, according to HUD. That's just 43% of the need.