What is the Point-In-Time Count?

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires cities that receive federal funding for homeless programs to conduct an annual count of their homeless population. This is known as the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count because it provides a snapshot of a community's homeless population during a specific time period. PIT is a one-day (24 hours), statistically reliable, unduplicated count of the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population.

The PIT Count is just one way we determine how many people are homeless in Virginia Beach.

• 2023 PIT Report
• More Homelessness Data

Why is it important?

Information from the PIT Count helps determine how much funding our community will receive for programs and services that help the homeless. Each year, approximately $2 million is granted through the Continuum of Care (CoC) to Virginia Beach agencies that provide housing and supportive services to the homeless.

The data collected will also be useful on many levels:

• Provides a baseline number of individuals experiencing homelessness in our community; with successive counts, we can measure our progress towards making homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.
• Enhance our understanding of the issue by identifying demographic information of the homeless population, where they are located, how they became homeless, and what services would help them.
• Allows agencies to improve their ability to plan and implement effective services for people experiencing homelessness
  In short, the more we know about our homeless population, the better we can serve their needs.

When is the Virginia Beach PIT Count?

The next PIT Count will take place on Jan. 25, 2024.

How is the PIT Count conducted?

In Virginia Beach, teams of volunteers and city staff canvass areas throughout the city, and count and survey people who are without shelter. Information collected includes but is not limited to name, age, gender, and length of homelessness. Organizations also report the number of individuals that stayed in the shelter and transitional housing on the day of the count.

How many people were identified as homeless during the PIT Count?

In 2023, there were 313 individuals in Virginia Beach who were identified as experiencing homelessness. This is a 29% decrease since the 2014 PIT Count.