FAQ Point in Time Count

What is the Point in Time Count (PIT Count) ?

The point-in-time count is meant to serve as a snapshot of homelessness in a community and to provide a sense of the overall scope of homelessness in America.

Every year, communities that receive federal funding for homelessness conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night, called the point-in-time count. The point-in-time (PIT) count is meant to serve as a snapshot of homelessness in a community and to provide a sense of the overall scope of homelessness in America.

Every other year, communities must conduct a count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. Some communities opt to do a count of unsheltered homelessness, even during the years it is not mandated, to provide a fuller picture of homelessness in their community.

Annually, communities are required to do a count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing, and safe havens on a single night. 

These counts are conducted by a Continuum of Care, a local or regional planning organization that receives federal funding and works to coordinate efforts to end homelessness. Continuum's of Care rely on groups of volunteers to conduct the count, which often occurs in late January. 

How is the Point-in-Time Count reported and used?

The point-in-time count is the only mandated count of all people experiencing homelessness that happens annually across the country. 

With that, community stakeholders have been equipped with yearly estimates to track trends at a large scale — both locally and nationally — over periods of time. The event is often a significant undertaking in terms of coordination and execution for any community, which involves staff within the homeless response system and the local Continuum of Care, as well as volunteers.  

The results of the point-in-time count are reported each year to Congress in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR). The AHAR is usually published by HUD about a year after the point-in-time count is conducted. 

This report also contains data on communities’ housing inventory, including all bed types — emergency shelters, transitional housing, permanent housing, and any other subsidy-based housing. This report, called the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), is meant to give a sense of each communities’ current housing capacity.

The Annual Homeless Assessment Report and the aggregated data from the PIT and HIC contained in it are often used to inform decisions about homelessness funding, policy recommendations, and research.

What other kinds of data do communities use to understand and solve homelessness?

The point-in-time count allows communities to employ different methodologies to provide an aggregate, anonymized snapshot of homelessness on a single night. Studies have suggested that the results of the count can miss large segments of the homeless population, fluctuate year over year, and be unreliable for making comparisons across communities or time.