Conducting a Point-in-Time Count

Conducting a point-in-time count is important to all communities. The count is a tally of who is homeless on a given night and provides a snapshot of who experiences homeless throughout the year.

The Point-in-Time Count is a one-day, statistically reliable, unduplicated count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals and families in the county.

It is required that communities applying to use HUD Continuum of Care funding to serve the homeless do a count each year in the last week of January. Communities will also be conducting a bed inventory of housing dedicated to homeless individuals and families.

What time is the count?

The 2010 Point-in-Time Count will be held Wednesday, January 27.

It's best to set a 24-hour period of time for a count. The 2010 count will begin at 6pm on January 27th and end at 6pm on January 28th. On the night of the 27th, transitional houses and shelters will do their count. As of 2009, we're adding counting how many persons are housed in permanent supportive housing. While these folks are no longer homeless, it's important to gather data on how many folks we've moved into permanent supportive housing.

You might do your street count the evening or night of the count, or early on the morning of the next day. If you are planning on including a service-based count (where you go to a service location where it is known that homeless will be, such as a soup kitchen), you would do this during the day. Remember, if you do a count during the day of the 28th, you'll be asking "Where did you stay last night (the 27th)?" If they stayed in a shelter or in transitional housing, you know they have already been counted.

In order for communities to conduct a reliable and efficient count, the following resources are available:

2010 Point in Time Count Forms

***HUD has redesigned the Homeless Population and Subpopluations chart for the Continuum of Care application. Of significance is the charge to count the number of households with and without children.

You will need to know the number of households represented by singles, couples without children and unaccompanied youth in addition to the number of households represented by families.

This change is reflected on the NC Point-in-Time Template.

HUD's Guide to Counting Sheltered Homeless People

HUD's Guide to Counting Unsheltered Homeless People