Annual Point-In-Time Homeless Count

Tuesday, January 26, 2021, South Dakota will be conducting the Annual Point-In-Time Homeless (PIT) Count and Housing Inventory Chart (HIC). These activities are required by US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nationwide as part of the Continuum of Care Program. The information is collected and reported to Congress. The information is also used for measuring progress, identifying strengths in services, identifying gaps in services, increasing public awareness and enhancing system planning. 

GROW SD will be helping to coorindating the count for the following counties in SD: Beadle, Brown, Campbell, Day, Edmunds, Faulk, Hand, Hughes, Hyde, Marshall, McPherson, Potter, Roberts, Spink, Stanley, Sully, Walworth.  

The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count is a count and survey of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons on a single night in January. Each count is coordinated and carried out locally and by regions.

PIT Counts are counts of the number of people in a community who are homeless and are;

• Staying in an emergency shelter or in a transitional housing program dedicated to homeless
• Staying in a motel/hotel that is being paid for by a governmental entity or charitable organization assisting homeless (if the tenant is paying for the hotel themselves, do NOT count them); and
• Sleeping outside, in cars, tents, in places not meant for human habitation.

The PIT Count provides a community with a unique snapshot of their unsheltered homeless population as this data is generally not provided for by other measures.  How does the PIT Count help your community?

• Assess the size of the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population
• Allow for some limited analysis of different subpopulations, including unaccompanied children, survivors of domestic violence, veterans, and chronically homeless persons
• Allow a community to assess progress in ending homelessness
• Recognize the importance of homelessness as a community and bring attention to the people experiencing homelessness

The PIT Count is not perfect and doesn’t tell us everything about needs in a community or in the US, but it does provide some valuable information as to the scope of homelessness, including demonstrating unmet need represented by the number of unsheltered people.

The Housing Inventory Chart (HIC) is a point-in-time inventory of provider programs within a Continuum of Care that provides beds and units dedicated to serve persons who are or were homeless. The HIC is categorized into five Program Types: Emergency Shelter, Transitional Housing; Rapid Re-housing; Safe Haven; and Permanent Housing (Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Rehousing, or Other Permanent Housing). 

Lastly, there have been a few changes in the 2021 PIT Count due to COVID-19 Pandemic. The South Dakota Housing for the Homeless Consortium Policy and Advisory Committee (PAC) SDHHC will not be completing the statewide 2021 Point-In-Time (PIT) Count for people experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness. SDHHC will still complete the Sheltered PIT Count and the Housing Inventory Chart (HIC) activities on Tuesday, January 26, 2021 as planned. The US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has provided a Waiver for the 2021 Unsheltered PIT Count due the COVID Pandemic, associated safety concerns, and other challenges to completing the Unsheltered PIT Count under the current conditions.