The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that communities receiving federal funds from the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program conduct a count of all sheltered people in the last week of January annually. Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) records are used to enumerate people living in emergency shelters and transitional housing. In DuPage County, a Point in Time count of the unsheltered population will also take place this year in 2022.
Point-in-time or “street counts” are important because they help communities plan services and programs to appropriately address local needs, measure progress in decreasing homelessness, and identify strengths and gaps in a community’s current homeless assistance system. The first of these counts was conducted in January 2003. Collecting data on homelessness and tracking progress can help to inform public education, increase public awareness, and attract resources that will lead towards progress in preventing and ending homelessness.
What Will Happen in 2022?
Volunteers will canvass the community in search of unsheltered individuals during the overnight hours from Wednesday, January 26th into the early morning hours of Thursday, January 27th and conduct surveys where appropriate. During that time, 24+ teams will cover 34 DuPage County communities in search of unsheltered persons living in places not meant for human habitation, such as a vehicle, a park, in a train station or other 24-hour location. Street Count volunteers maintain a health and safety-first approach for all team members, and virtual training is provided prior to the night of the count. For additional details, please visit: