The extent of homelessness can be an indicator of a community's ability to provide stable jobs that pay a living wage as well as measures of support for the unemployed and access to affordable housing and health care. Homelessness is related to larger issues such as poverty, employment, mental health, substance abuse, and family violence. The way a community cares for its more vulnerable citizens is a marker of collaboration and its social support systems.

In 2022, Westchester counted 913 homeless African American people, for a rate of 27.1 per 100,000 residents, nearly ten times higher than the rate for Whites, at 2.8, and more than triple the rate for Hispanics, at 7.8.

Westchester's rates for all groups were well below state and national rates; however, its rate for African Americans was higher than Nassau and Suffolk (26.2), as well as Rockland (4.3). Its rate for Hispanics was higher than Rockland (3.3), and than Nassau and Suffolk (6.0).

The inequity of homelessness is a result of long-standing historical and systemic racism that continues to perpetuate disparities in critical areas that impact rates of homelessness such as employment, poverty, housing discrimination and segregation, incarceration, and access to quality mental and physical health care.

Figures represent point-in-time counts. It is very difficult to obtain an exact count of homeless persons, due to transience and to limited resources for record-keeping. Comparable data presented for available counties are currently limited to point-in-time counts done on one night in January. Data are not available for Putnam County, and Nassau and Suffolk data are combined in the available data.

HUD asks people to identify their race (white, African-American, etc.) separate from their ethnicity (Hispanic or non-Hispanic). So the totals for these categories cannot be added together, as people show up in both a racial and ethnic group.