The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is pleased to present to Congress the 2007 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR). This is the third report in a series of reports on homelessness in the United States and the first to be based on a full year of Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) data reported by communities across the country. This 2007 report will provide a baseline for measuring changes in homelessness from one year to the next.

The reports respond to a series of Congressional directives beginning with the FY 2001 HUD Appropriations Act. In that year, Congress directed HUD to assist communities in implementing local HMIS and required every jurisdiction to begin client-level reporting within three years. Senate Report 106-410 noted that HMIS data could be used to develop an unduplicated count of homeless people and to analyze the use and effectiveness of homelessness assistance services. To that end, Congress further charged HUD with collecting and analyzing HMIS data from a representative sample of communities in order to understand the nature and extent of homelessness across the nation. (HUD)