Point in Time Count
How many homeless residents does Austin have?
The city of Austin hosts a citywide counting initiative and through the diligent action of volunteers the homeless residents of Austin are counted over one night.
There are many reasons why this happens annually but the largest reason being that it is vital the city tracks the rise or fall in the number of homeless residents in Austin. These numbers are used to calculate resources needed to help end homelessness in Austin, Tx.
The counting project is led by ECHO, Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, a local non-profit that works to end homelessness in Austin.
The most recent stats say "Over 7,000 individuals experienced homelessness in 2018. The 2019 Point in Time Count showed that there were 2,255 individuals experiencing homelessness in Travis County on a single day. Of the 2,255 individuals experiencing homelessness, 1,169 were sheltered and 1,086 were unsheltered," according to the ECHO website.
On any given day in Austin the average number of people experiencing homelessness is around 2,200 people.
This annual counting is also used for not only city funding but federal funding. It's required by Housing & Urban Development (HUD) of Continuums of Care (CoC) in each community in order to receive HUD funding.
The purpose is to not only count the homeless population but understand age, gender, veteran status, disability status, description of sleeping circumstance, history of homelessness, barriers to housing, history of benefits, prior involvement in Coordinated Assessment, pet ownership and contact info if applicable.
