Tulsi Gabbard on homelessness: what the evidence says · JRE #1391
SUBJECT: HOMELESSNESS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
The homeless crisis in Hawaii is the worst per capita of any state in the country.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Gabbard claimed Hawaii's per-capita homelessness rate was the worst of any U.S. state. HUD's 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, based on the January 2019 point-in-time count contemporaneous with this episode, found New York had the highest rate among states at 46 people per 10,000 residents, narrowly ahead of Hawaii at 45 per 10,000; California (38) and Oregon (38) followed. The District of Columbia, not a state, had a far higher rate of 94 per 10,000 but is excluded from state rankings. Hawaii has consistently ranked among the two or three states with the highest per-capita homelessness rates in HUD's annual counts, but it was not the single highest at the time of this claim, New York was. The claim is an exaggeration: Hawaii's homelessness crisis was severe and near the top nationally, but "worst" and "any state" overstate its position relative to New York in the data available when the episode aired.