Houston, Texas (January 28, 2024) – This week, the nonprofit Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County (CFTH) is leading the annual Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey (“PIT Count”) to determine the number of people experiencing homelessness across Houston and throughout Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.

“The progress we’ve seen in addressing homelessness in Houston are a direct result of the strategic partnerships and investments we’ve made in our homeless response system,” said Kelly Young, President & CEO of CFTH. “However, sustainable funding is critical to ensuring we don’t backslide. When we are adequately funded, we can do more, reach more people and ultimately create a system that serves everyone experiencing homelessness in our community. As we move forward, we remain committed to reaching equilibrium, in other words, ensuring that people are rehoused within 30 days.”

CFTH coordinates Houston region’s nationally recognized public-private homeless response system, The Way Home. Through this collaboration, The Way Home partners have successfully housed over 33,500 people since 2012.

The results of Houston’s 2025 PIT Count will be released by CFTH in the spring, following independent verification by an epidemiologist. These findings will provide insight into how factors such the end of federal pandemic relief funding have impacted homelessness in our region

More information about the 2024 Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey

The PIT Count offers a snapshot of how many people are experiencing homelessness in our region on a single night. This year, the “night of record” is Monday, Jan. 27. CFTH determines the number of people staying in shelters on that night by pulling records electronically from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). The unsheltered count is conducted on the following days, from Tuesday, Jan. 28 to Thursday, Jan. 30. More than 400 volunteers and staff of local nonprofit service provider partners will canvass the three-county region to survey people living unsheltered, using an app on their mobile devices.

Results from the 2025 PIT Count will help gauge the progress of The Way Home’s ongoing collaborative efforts. It will also help CFTH and partner homeless outreach teams target their outreach throughout the year. The PIT Count illuminates specific demographic and programmatic gaps and provides additional information needed to end chronic homelessness and continue to improve the local homeless response system.

The PIT Count is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for the annual Continuum of Care (CoC) funding process. HUD furnishes the majority of funding for programs that provide housing and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness in the region. In 2024, HUD granted more than $71 million to the Houston area.

For more information and for results of previous years’ counts, please click here.