Hidden Homelessness: Couch Surfing and Doubling Up

When most people think of homelessness, they picture someone sleeping on a sidewalk, in a tent encampment, or in an emergency shelter. But for every person experiencing homelessness in these visible ways, there are many more whose housing instability remains entirely hidden from public view. These are people staying temporarily on a friend's couch, sleeping in a relative's living room, or moving from one overcrowded arrangement to the next—not because they want to, but because they have no home of their own. This phenomenon, known as "hidden homelessness," represents one of the largest and least understood dimensions of the housing crisis in the United States.

People experiencing hidden homelessness are not choosing an alternative lifestyle. They are surviving a housing emergency using the only resources available to them: the goodwill of others. Their situations are precarious, temporary, and often deeply stressful—yet because they have a roof over their heads on any given night, they are frequently excluded from official homeless counts, denied access to homeless services, and rendered invisible in policy discussions.

What Is Doubling Up?

"Doubling up" refers to the practice of sharing the housing of others due to economic hardship, loss of housing, or similar reasons. A family that has been evicted and moves in with relatives, a young adult who cannot afford rent and sleeps on a friend's floor, or a mother with children who stays with a series of acquaintances after fleeing domestic violence—all of these are examples of doubling up. The defining characteristic is that the arrangement is driven by necessity rather than choice, and the person or family lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence of their own.

Doubled-up arrangements are inherently unstable. The host household may itself be struggling financially, and the addition of extra people can strain relationships, violate lease agreements, and create overcrowded or unsafe living conditions. People who are doubled up often have no legal right to remain in the space they occupy. They may be asked to leave at any time, with little or no notice, pushing them into another temporary arrangement—or onto the streets.

For families with children, doubling up can mean constant disruption. Children may change schools repeatedly, lose access to consistent healthcare, and struggle to maintain friendships and routines. The lack of personal space and privacy can affect homework, sleep, and emotional well-being. Parents in doubled-up situations often describe feeling a profound loss of autonomy and dignity, even as they express gratitude to those who take them in.

Couch Surfing as Survival

Couch surfing—moving from one temporary stay to another, often on a nightly or weekly basis—represents an even more precarious form of hidden homelessness. Unlike doubling up, which may involve a somewhat stable (if temporary) arrangement with a single household, couch surfing involves constant movement and uncertainty. A person may stay with one friend for a few nights, then move to another acquaintance's apartment, then sleep in a car when no one is available to host them.

The instability of couch surfing takes a severe toll on physical and mental health. Without a consistent place to sleep, store belongings, prepare meals, or attend to personal hygiene, people who are couch surfing live in a state of perpetual uncertainty. They may not know where they will sleep tomorrow night. They cannot receive mail, maintain a stable address for employment applications, or establish the kind of routine that supports recovery from trauma, addiction, or mental health challenges.

For young people, couch surfing carries particular risks. Youth who are couch surfing are vulnerable to exploitation, including sexual exploitation and trafficking, as they may feel obligated to those who provide them shelter. LGBTQ+ youth who have been rejected by their families are disproportionately represented among young people who couch surf, and they may face additional dangers in unfamiliar or hostile environments. The National Center for Homeless Education reports that students identified as homeless who are doubled up or couch surfing often experience significant disruptions to their education, including chronic absenteeism, lower academic achievement, and higher dropout rates.

The Scale of Hidden Homelessness

The true scale of hidden homelessness is difficult to measure precisely because, by definition, it occurs out of public view. However, available data suggests that it dwarfs the visible homeless population counted in shelters and on the streets.

The most comprehensive data on hidden homelessness comes from the U.S. Department of Education, which uses the broader McKinney-Vento Act definition of homelessness. Under this definition, children and youth who are sharing the housing of others due to economic hardship or loss of housing are considered homeless. During the 2021–2022 school year, public schools identified approximately 1.16 million students experiencing homelessness. Of these, roughly 74%—more than 858,000 children and youth—were doubled up, sharing housing with others due to economic hardship. This single category alone vastly exceeds the total number of people counted in HUD's annual point-in-time count.

These numbers represent only school-age children and youth who have been identified by school liaisons. They do not include preschool-age children, adults without children, elderly individuals, or anyone not connected to the public school system. The actual number of people experiencing hidden homelessness in the United States is almost certainly several million.

Why Hidden Homelessness Goes Uncounted

The gap between the visible and hidden homeless populations is not accidental. It is the product of definitional choices, methodological limitations, and the nature of hidden homelessness itself.

Definitional Differences

HUD uses a relatively narrow definition of homelessness for its programs and counts. Under HUD's definition, a person is considered homeless if they are living in a place not meant for human habitation, in an emergency shelter, or in transitional housing. People who are doubled up—sharing housing with others due to economic hardship—are generally not considered homeless under HUD's definition unless they are imminently at risk of losing their shared housing. In contrast, the McKinney-Vento Act, which governs educational protections for children and youth, uses a broader definition that explicitly includes children and youth who are "sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason." This definitional gap means that the same family can be considered homeless by their child's school but not by HUD.

Methodological Limitations

HUD's primary tool for counting the homeless population is the point-in-time (PIT) count, conducted on a single night in late January each year. Volunteers and outreach workers canvass shelters and known outdoor locations to count people experiencing homelessness. By design, this methodology cannot capture people who are staying inside someone else's home. A family sleeping on a relative's floor on the night of the count will not be counted, even if they have no permanent housing and will be asked to leave the following week.

Self-Identification Barriers

Many people who are doubled up or couch surfing do not think of themselves as "homeless." They have a roof over their heads, even if it is not their own. They may feel shame about their situation and avoid seeking help from homeless service providers. Cultural norms in many communities emphasize family obligation and mutual aid, making it natural to take in relatives or friends in need—and making it less likely that either the host or the guest will frame the arrangement as homelessness. This reluctance to self-identify means that even surveys and outreach efforts designed to find people experiencing hidden homelessness may undercount them.

The Toll of Hidden Homelessness

The fact that hidden homelessness is less visible than sleeping on the streets does not make it less harmful. People experiencing hidden homelessness face a range of serious consequences that affect their health, relationships, safety, and long-term stability.

Psychological Stress and Uncertainty

Living without a home of one's own—even when staying with others—produces chronic stress. The constant uncertainty about where one will sleep, the fear of overstaying a welcome, and the loss of autonomy and privacy take a significant psychological toll. Research has linked housing instability, including doubling up, to elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, particularly among children and youth.

Strained Relationships and Overcrowding

Doubled-up arrangements place enormous strain on both the guest and the host household. Overcrowding can lead to conflict, resentment, and the deterioration of relationships that were once sources of support. Host families may face their own financial pressures, and the addition of extra people can push them toward their own housing instability. Lease violations resulting from unauthorized occupants can put the entire household at risk of eviction.

Vulnerability to Exploitation

People who depend on others for shelter are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Without a legal right to the space they occupy, they may tolerate unsafe or abusive conditions rather than risk losing their only place to stay. Women and youth are particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation in these circumstances. Research from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago has documented the ways in which housing instability increases young people's exposure to trafficking and survival sex—exchanging sexual acts for a place to sleep.

Impact on Children and Youth

Children experiencing hidden homelessness suffer academically, socially, and emotionally. Frequent moves disrupt schooling, making it difficult to keep up with coursework, maintain peer relationships, or access special education services. The National Center for Homeless Education has documented that students experiencing homelessness have lower graduation rates, higher rates of chronic absenteeism, and lower standardized test scores than their housed peers. The stress of housing instability can also manifest in behavioral problems, difficulty concentrating, and emotional withdrawal.

Who Is Most Affected

While hidden homelessness can affect anyone, certain populations are disproportionately represented among people who are doubled up or couch surfing.

Women and Children

Women with children are among the most likely to experience hidden homelessness. Mothers fleeing domestic violence, those who have lost employment, or those facing eviction often turn to family and friends rather than entering the shelter system—particularly when shelters lack capacity or are perceived as unsafe for children. As a result, women and children make up a large share of the doubled-up population identified by schools but are underrepresented in HUD's point-in-time counts.

LGBTQ+ Youth

LGBTQ+ youth are dramatically overrepresented among young people experiencing homelessness, and many of them experience hidden homelessness specifically. Family rejection based on sexual orientation or gender identity is a leading cause of youth homelessness, and young people who have been rejected by their families often rely on friends, partners, or acquaintances for temporary shelter. Chapin Hall's Voices of Youth Count study found that LGBTQ+ youth had a 120% higher risk of experiencing homelessness compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers.

Immigrants and Undocumented Individuals

Immigrants, particularly those who are undocumented, face unique barriers to accessing housing and homeless services. Fear of deportation, language barriers, and ineligibility for many federal housing programs push many immigrants into doubled-up arrangements with family or community members. These arrangements may involve severe overcrowding and exploitation, but individuals may be reluctant to seek help due to concerns about their immigration status.

People in Rural Areas

Hidden homelessness is particularly prevalent in rural communities, where emergency shelters and homeless services are scarce or nonexistent. In rural areas, people who lose their housing are far more likely to double up with family or friends, live in cars or campers, or stay in substandard housing rather than enter a shelter—because there may be no shelter to enter. The geographic isolation of rural communities also makes it harder for outreach workers and researchers to identify and count people experiencing hidden homelessness.

Policy Implications

Recognizing hidden homelessness has profound implications for how we define, measure, and respond to housing instability in the United States.

Broader Definitions

The gap between HUD's definition and the McKinney-Vento definition creates a two-tiered system in which millions of people without stable housing are excluded from the programs and resources designed to help them. Advocates and researchers have long called for a more inclusive federal definition of homelessness that recognizes doubled-up and couch-surfing populations as homeless. A broader definition would not only provide a more accurate picture of the crisis but would also expand eligibility for housing assistance, prevention services, and other supports.

Prevention-Focused Approaches

People who are doubled up are at high risk of becoming literally homeless—that is, of ending up in shelters or on the streets—when their temporary arrangements break down. Investing in prevention services for this population, including emergency rental assistance, mediation, and rapid rehousing, can prevent the escalation of housing crises and reduce entries into literal homelessness. Prevention is consistently more cost-effective than emergency response, yet current funding structures often require people to become literally homeless before they can access help.

School-Based Identification

Schools are often the first—and sometimes the only—institutions to identify children and families experiencing hidden homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Act requires every school district to designate a homeless liaison responsible for identifying and supporting students experiencing homelessness. Strengthening these school-based identification systems, providing adequate funding for liaisons, and connecting identified families to housing resources can serve as a critical bridge between hidden homelessness and the services people need.

Conclusion

Hidden homelessness—the experience of people who lack stable housing but do not appear in official counts because they are staying temporarily with others—represents one of the most significant blind spots in our understanding of and response to the housing crisis. Millions of people in the United States, including hundreds of thousands of children, are doubled up, couch surfing, or otherwise precariously housed, yet they remain largely invisible in the data, the policy discussions, and the public imagination that shape our response to homelessness.

Addressing hidden homelessness requires expanding our definitions, improving our counting methods, investing in prevention, and recognizing that a person does not need to be sleeping on the streets to be in a housing crisis. It requires listening to the experiences of people who are doubled up and couch surfing, understanding the toll that housing instability takes even when a roof is technically overhead, and building systems that can reach people before their situations deteriorate further. Only by making hidden homelessness visible can we develop truly comprehensive solutions to the housing crisis.

References & Further Reading

1. National Center for Homeless Education. "Federal Data Summary: School Years 2018–19 through 2021–22." NCHE, 2023. https://nche.ed.gov/data-and-stats/
2. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "The 2023 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress, Part 1." HUD, 2023. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2023-AHAR-Part-1.pdf
3. National Alliance to End Homelessness. "The State of Homelessness in America." NAEH, 2023. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/
4. Morton, M.H., Dworsky, A., & Samuels, G.M. "Missed Opportunities: Youth Homelessness in America." Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, 2017. https://voicesofyouthcount.org/brief/national-estimates-of-youth-homelessness/
5. National Center for Homeless Education. "The McKinney-Vento Definition of Homeless." NCHE, 2023. https://nche.ed.gov/mckinney-vento-definition/
6. Hallett, Ronald E. & Skrla, Linda. "Serving Students Who Are Homeless: A Resource Guide for Schools, Districts, and Educational Leaders." Teachers College Press, 2017.
7. National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. "Don't Count on It: How the HUD Point-in-Time Count Underestimates the Homelessness Crisis in America." NLCHP, 2017. https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/HUD-PIT-report2017.pdf
8. Curry, Susan R. & Morton, Matthew H. "Addressing Youth Homelessness Means Understanding It: Toward a Definition of Hidden Homelessness." Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 67, no. 6, 2020, pp. 745–746. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.09.008
9. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. "All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness." USICH, 2023. https://www.usich.gov/all-in
10. Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness. "On the Map: The Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City." ICPH, 2023. https://www.icphusa.org/reports/on-the-map/