An independent news publication of
United Way of Lancaster County

Search

Point In Time Count 2025 field survey

Lancaster County Housing and Redevelopment Authorities Office (Photo Brian McCloud )

Last week, The Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition, a department under The Lancaster County Housing and Redevelopment Authorities, conducted the congressionally mandated annual Point-in-Time Count (PIT Count). The coalition is an administrative entity that oversees local homelessness programs and allocates funding to local service providers, and conducts the Point-in-Time Count. The Point-in-Time Count is mandated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to occur within the last ten days of January. The nationwide initiative surveys individuals and families experiencing unsheltered homelessness on a specific night. The count displays a snapshot of the characteristics and extent of homelessness in the local area. The data collected is a valuable tool, locally and nationally, in examining the progress of reducing homelessness and identifying strengths, and gaps within the current responses to unhoused individuals. The data that comes from the count is important because it informs funding decisions, facilitates resource planning, raises awareness within the community and political domains about the urgent challenges of homelessness.

This year, the volunteer survey teams conducted the count on the evening of Wednesday, Jan 22, and continued through the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 23. Volunteers included members with lived experience or who have experience in mental health, criminal justice, substance use disorder, and homelessness to ensure a trauma-informed and empathetic approach to the survey work. To ensure broader data is collected, local service agencies will engage individuals not yet surveyed using the service-based component which runs until January 29th.

The 2025 Lancaster County PIT Count will provide information regarding: The number of individuals experiencing homelessness, as defined by HUD, within our Continuum of Care (CoC) geographic area, where people experiencing homelessness are in relation to service locations, demographic details of individuals and families experiencing homelessness,  subpopulation data such as the number of veterans, transitional age youth (ages 18 to 24) and seniors (age 62 and older), and the number of individuals impacted by disabilities, including physical and mental health conditions, based on interview responses.

The office for the Homelessness Coalition will conduct the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), alongside the Point-in-Time count. HIC provides a detailed inventory of emergency shelters and housing programs serving individuals experiencing homelessness.

A change for this year’s count is that data was collected electronically leading to increased efficiency in the collection and analysis processes. The street outreach staff shared their opinions through the planning process for field survey work. In addition, the PIT Planning Committee has incorporated lessons learned from the past years to ensure this year’s strategy is informed by both experience and data. The Point-in-Time Count number is projected to be released by the end of April, said Deb Jones, Director of Human Services at the Lancaster County Homelessness Coalition.

Homeless outreach workers Milan Koneff (Left) and Tom Tuten (Right) at Tenfold Street Shelter on Thursday Dec. 19, 2024 (Photo: Brian McCloud)

One United Lancaster reached out to field survey workers Milan Koneff and Thomas Tutten for comments on their experience. The following has been updated for length and clarity.

Milan Koneff: This PIT count was the fifth time I’ve participated, and the third year in a row where I have been the lead of a team. I did it once briefly in York, PA, a while back, and then have done the rest in Lancaster County. We expected folks to be scattered and more spread out which can make finding and connecting with them difficult. I expected more shelter numbers due to the bed count that we had/have during Code Blue and the Tenfold Temporary shelter being available.

The team I led was a great bunch that included newer outreach members from our local partners at SEEDS. The three of us and another volunteer met up and then had around 15-20 spots to check around the Lincoln Highway / US 30 area and surrounding spots. I have been in a different area / team each year. I think due to my experience, it has been helpful to place me with other social workers that are doing this for the first time, in hopes / preparation that they may be able to lead their local team next year. The brutal cold was an obstacle, but we prepared well and came up with a solid game plan to move from spot to spot safely as a team, and throughout the night we ended up finding that the snow was a benefit as we searched for folks. …. We talked to some workers at gas stations and other places along the routes to see if there was any awareness of folks in the area. We tried not to ask about anything specific and not give information about whereabouts we may be aware of already…. We want to be out there connecting with anyone that may not already be connected, in whatever ways work best for them and their situations. The rest of the night was not as successful, so our numbers were not high, but we had some great interactions that impacted on several relationships with clients that I have, new and old.

Folks were indeed more spread out this year, even with the bitter cold and snow. I believe this to be an effect of the change in the way things are being handled within the city. We’re not allowing folks to exist in spaces like they were before, and so far, we’ve offered some temporary relief through decisions like Tenfold’s shelter, but we need more solutions than that, and we need them to be permanent.

Thomas Tuten: I was the team leader for the team covering Northern Lancaster City to F&M and downtown. This was my second year in a row leading the team in this area. Going into it, I had a lot of questions about my expectations for this year, mainly whether I expected to see more people than last year…. Last year in 2024, my team had the largest count of unsheltered individuals in the county, documenting more than 30. Those individuals were concentrated in just a few areas around center city. I knew this would not be the case this year, primarily because increased enforcement in parks has spread these individuals out and sent some away from the city. This year, we counted a third of the 2024 number in our area, and those we did count were on their own in solitary locations rather than in groups.

Another change compared to last year is that the PIT count fell on a code blue declaration, which meant there was more emergency shelter available than last year. I expect the count of individuals in shelter, who are also part of the count but documented separately, to be higher this year than the previous year because of this. It is important for your readership to know that for most of the year, there are many fewer shelter beds countywide than there are on the coldest nights in January, which means that the official figures in terms of unsheltered homelessness vs sheltered cannot be taken as set in stone year-round. That being said, I am certain that the existence of those shelter beds decreased the number of unsheltered individuals who were outside that night, which shows the efficacy of shelter in keeping our unhoused neighbors safe from the elements…. I am very grateful to the volunteers who came out to make this happen, and the team at the O4C that set up the PIT count and will supervise the collection and submission of the data to HUD. It is impossible to get a perfect count of every unhoused person, but over the last few years our ability to conduct the count in a way which finds the maximum number of people has improved.