The District’s homeless population has increased by more than 4% this year, according to the city’s annual census of people living on the streets, with families experiencing homelessness jumping by 16%.

The city’s Department of Human Services said that, despite the increase in this year’s Point-in-Time survey, homelessness is still down 16% since 2020 and has fallen by 27% since 2015.

The number of homeless families has also dropped sharply in the past decade, with data showing a 36% decline from 2020 and a 55% drop from 2015.

The DHS said the spike in families represented in this year’s count is because more families were biding their time in shelters while waiting for permanent housing options to become available.

“This year’s PIT results reflect an intentional shift in policy designed to ensure that when families exit homelessness, they exit for good,” DHS Director A.D. Rachel Pierre said in a statement.

“We have implemented a more targeted approach that matches each family with a tailored housing resource — which can take longer — and at the same time increased our focus on prevention and diversion programs, like [Homeless Prevention Program] and DC Flex, which have reduced inflows into our family homeless system,” Ms. Pierre said.

Officials said even with more families staying in shelters, the number of new families entering the shelters sank by 30% in the past year.

The overall number of homeless people entering shelters fell by 9% in the past year, the Point-in-Time counter showed. And a similar percentage of single adults and people between the ages of 18 to 24 have been recorded as homeless the past two years.

Eliminating the appearance of homelessness in the nation’s capital has been a focus of President Trump since he returned to the White House last year.

He coordinated with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to remove a homeless encampment near the State Department last spring. And during his crime-fighting operation last summer, Mr. Trump pushed for encampment clearings as part of a citywide beautification effort.

The White House said close to 150 encampments have been dismantled throughout Mr. Trump’s term.

Data from the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services shows that the rate of encampment clearings has gone up following Mr. Trump’s return as well.

The District is averaging 17 encampment clearings per month this year, according to the data, which is almost double the nine encampment clearings per month in 2025.