Point-in-Time Count

Methodology and Limitations

The United States Department of Housing & Urban Development dictates the methodology of the PIT count. The 2022 count was conducted by 48 trained volunteers on 16 teams on the evening of January 25, 2022. It includes data from shelters and transitional housing, as well as a count of people who are unsheltered (i.e. sleeping outside, in cars, or in other locations not intended for human habitation).

The City of Asheville uses a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) to capture data on who is homeless in our community, what their characteristics and needs are, and how they flow through our homeless service system.  Most homeless service providers participate in HMIS, contributing to our understanding of homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County. If you are a service provider not already enrolled in HMIS, please consider doing so — the data you provide helps the entire community better address homelessness.

For the PIT count, those providers who participate in HMIS provide information on the count night through that system, while other agencies and the street teams use paper forms to collect information, which is then entered into HMIS by City staff. HMIS provides analysis tools to identify missing and mis-entered data, and to de-duplicate records (for example, people surveyed as unsheltered who end up staying at a shelter that night). Once the data is prepared, HMIS is used to de-identify and aggregate the results for reporting to HUD, usually in late April, with public release following soon after, usually by June.

The PIT count is not a perfect measure. It does not show how many people become newly homeless or find housing each month, or how many people experience homelessness over the course of a year. Since participation is voluntary and survey teams may miss some unsheltered people, it may not include every person who is homeless, and it excludes people who don’t meet the Federal definition of homelessness (such as people who are couch-surfing with friends and relatives).

Nevertheless, the PIT count is generally accurate and is the most comprehensive dataset we currently have on the number of people experiencing homelessness.  More detailed information on the count purpose, history, methodology and limitations are available on the HUD Exchange website.