Reflecting on the Point In Time Count

Every January, counties across the country prepare for the Point In Time Count. The PIT is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development, HUD, requires that Continuums of Care (CoC) conduct a count of those sheltered and unsheltered at least every other year. HUD also requires CoCs conduct an annual Housing Inventory Count (HIC), documenting the residential resources in their community dedicated to assisting people experiencing homelessness. The data is reported to HUD, and nearly a year later, the results of this national census are released in the Annual Homeless Assessment Report.

In Washtenaw County, typically staff from county government, area human services (most involved in our county’s CoC), and volunteers from the community do the sheltered and unsheltered counts. Individuals conducting the unsheltered count will visit previously identified places where those experiencing homelessness stay – woodland areas not far from town, parks, parking lots, underpasses, and even hospital emergency and bus station waiting rooms. Individuals and families staying at shelters like the Delonis Center and Alpha House are included in the sheltered count, but people paying for their own hotel/motel rooms or doubling up with a family or friend are not at this time.

The PIT Count is held from late night to the early hours of the next day. The outside temperature is almost always frigid and below freezing. Inches of snow may also be on the ground. This year’s PIT was no different. In 2022, fortunately, very few people were identified outside unsheltered during the count. In fact, 97% of people counted last year for PIT were in shelter.

Homelessness in Washtenaw County has trended down since 2015 as measured at a point-in-time. Strategic efforts have been made by the WHA, service providers, and government partners to coordinate our county’s homeless system of care, implement shelter diversion and rapid re-housing, and to invest in the creation of more permanent housing. Below is a timeline highlighting some of the collaborative actions for why we are trending down.

2015

• Washtenaw CoC joined Built for Zero, a national initiative to end chronic and veteran homelessness;

• Ann Arbor Housing Commission opened Miller Manor, housing 45 chronically homeless households in permanent supportive housing units.

 2020

• Ann Arbor Housing Commission opened 2 new developments and housed homeless households, which affected the 2021 PIT count data.

 2021

• County human services providers started to see COVID CARES Act funds flow to help people in rapid re-housing and help prevent evictions;

• Avalon Housing opened Hickory Way, a permanent supportive housing development, housing 70 individuals.

In 2021, the first PIT Count amid a still-raging global pandemic, HUD allowed flexibility in the reporting requirement in recognition of the difficulty of conducting overnight street counts. They allowed communities to use a by-name list instead – a method of real-time tracking. This was a major step for HUD and helped communities more effectively use data to end — and not merely enumerate — homelessness. In Washtenaw County, our CoC did choose to conduct an in-person count that year.

Many communities understand the need to count, describe, and recognize the individuals and families who are houseless in their communities. For example, every day in the U.S., 10,000 people turn 65, and the number of older adults will more than double over the next several decades. They will represent over 20 percent of the population by 2050. As the population ages, and we consider current economic factors, even more older adults are moving into poverty and homelessness. A change HUD made for this year’s PIT is to expand the data collection and reporting requirement for the age categories for the persons in households with at least one adult and one child and persons without children.

No community can end homelessness without comprehensive data. Collecting good baseline data about who is experiencing homelessness is essential to designing effective responses and using it as a basis for comparison in future years. This has been an ongoing advocacy effort for many communities related to how the PIT Count works and who is missed in the count.

It is clear the PIT is challenged to account for all sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night, an immeasurable feat for many reasons. However, the PIT conducted in tandem with other methods for tracking data (like the by-name list, eviction filings/judgments, etc.) and first-person lived experience storytelling, is what broadens our understanding of what is happening in our county. And, right now that broader view indicates our county must keep investing in Housing First efforts that include securing stable funding for human services, more permanent supportive housing options, and eviction prevention resources.