Point-in-Time (PIT) Count Night is Wednesday, January 24
Point-in-Time (PIT) Count Night is Fast Approaching
The Point-In-Time (PIT) Count is nearly here. This year’s PIT night is this coming Wednesday, January 24, 2024. This is an annual count of people experiencing homelessness – both in shelter and transitional housing programs and in unsheltered settings. It involves the collaboration of HMIS users, ICA staff, CoC Coordinators, county staff and volunteers - just to name a few.
For emergency shelters, transitional housing, and unsheltered settings, the count is more involved. It pulls in some additional info such as demographics, housing history, and veteran status. For these settings, data comes both from HMIS and from surveys completed out in the community.
For permanent and rapid rehousing projects, the PIT night number is purely a totals count of individuals in the program on that night (no demographic details). For these settings, these numbers come from HMIS or from direct outreach to non-HMIS participating programs.
WHICH AGENCIES PARTICIPATE IN THE SHELTERED COUNT?
Any agency that has an Emergency Shelter (ES) or Transitional Housing (TH) program is asked to participate, regardless of funding source or HMIS participation. This includes new and temporary shelters. The numbers collected through the PIT Count also go into the HIC, which shows PIT numbers alongside program bed/unit inventories.
HOW DOES PIT HAPPEN?
For HMIS-participating ES and TH programs, it is business as usual. You will want to make extra sure that the clients served by your program on PIT night show up accurately in HMIS (meaning, your Entry/Exits are up to date). Do not complete separate PIT surveys!
For agencies that do not participate in HMIS, you will need to complete a survey for each client and family served on that night. Your CoC Coordinator will share instructions.
The unsheltered count takes place in a variety of ways, depending on geography, events, and organizations involved. At its core, the “count” is really a face-to-face survey with a person experiencing homelessness someplace not meant for habitation (e.g. a car, bus station, skyway) that takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Most surveyors are volunteers. The PIT volunteer recruitment and training efforts are all coordinated locally.
Should doubled-up households be counted? This is a local decision – please defer to local PIT and CoC leadership. The PIT count as required by HUD does not include doubled-up households, as they do not meet the federal definition of homelessness. That said, a number of CoCs do still survey doubled-up households and include those numbers in local analysis of PIT data.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?
HMIS ES and TH projects: Review your program’s HMIS data to make sure your PIT night enrollments match who your program actually served on the PIT night. If an individual or household is no longer being served by your project, please exit them out of your project in HMIS. You can get started on cleaning up your PIT night data immediately following the PIT night by following the instructions in our HMIS PIT Data Corrections Guide.
ES and TH agencies or projects not in HMIS: Reach out to your region's CoC Coordinator (if you're not already in contact with them) to solidify your plans for participating in the local PIT count.
You can find your CoC region and Coordinator contact information here.
Key Dates
February 2: All paper surveys and/or aggregate data submissions should be in the hands of local PIT leadership by Friday, February 2.
February 12: Make sure data quality for clients in your program on PIT night is accurate by Monday, February 12. (This is in alignment with the regular QDQ deadline, so get it all done at once!) ICA staff will send out instructions in advance to all programs with prompts to review PIT night HMIS data.
February 12-March 1: ICA staff will reach out to programs needing additional support between February 12 and March 1.
Local community members assisting in the unsheltered count: Reach out to your CoC Coordinator for direction on your region.
RESOURCES
You can access the updated training materials for the 2024 PIT Count, including the paper survey and PIT LIVE (online survey form) practice page, on our Point-in-Time Count webpage at hmismn.org. PIT LIVE is open for practice until Monday, January 22rd. It will be closed Monday through mid-afternoon Wednesday (PIT night).
The week after the PIT, ICA will send out instructions on reviewing and correcting your HMIS data quality for clients enrolled on the PIT night. Questions? Contact our Helpdesk at mnhmis@icalliances.org.