Document Type

Report

Publication Date

11-4-2025

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires continuums of care (CoC) across the country to routinely count people experiencing homelessness. This count, called the Point in Time Count (PITC), enumerates the number and characteristics of people who are experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. As a result, the count provides a snapshot of homelessness within a CoC. In the Portland metropolitan region, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties administer their respective CoCs. These, referred to as the tri-counties in this report, are responsible for submitting PITC data every year.

The PITC is a survey of people experiencing homelessness. Their experiences of homelessness are classified as either sheltered or unsheltered depending on where they were sleeping the night of the PITC. For the shelter count, CoCs are required to report the number of people living in their shelters on one night in January each year. HUD recognizes that conducting the unsheltered count requires significant effort and resources. As a result, counties may opt to count people living unsheltered each year or every other year. Counties may also opt to add supplemental data to augment the unsheltered count.

These requirements make the PITC one of the few standardized, national data sets about people experiencing homelessness. It collects data locally that, once aggregated, provides a snapshot of homelessness on a single night across the country.

Rights

Copyright 2025 Portland State University

Description

This report was prepared for Clackamas County, Multnomah County & the City of Portland Homeless Services Department, Washington County.

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44241

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