Point in Time Count

Our goal for the count is to better serve people experiencing homelessness by:

• Asking only for new information that adds to what we already have in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)
• Leveraging connections to existing homeless response system staff who are trained and familiar to people experiencing homelessness

Unsheltered count

We rely on support from and coordination with our community partners. We need help from street outreach teams, drop-in centers, libraries, food shelves, schools, and more.

• If you operate a drop-in center or other site-based location that is used by people experiencing homelessness, complete this survey.
• If you are a Street Outreach team, please complete this participation survey.
• If you are interested in volunteering with a partner to complete observation surveys from 11 p.m. on Wednesday, January 28 to 1 a.m. on Thursday, January 29, sign up to volunteer. Note: a car is needed.

Training

We will host virtual trainings for PIT Count surveyors and volunteers. You must get training to participate in the 2026 Point-in-Time count. Both will be recorded and posted to this page.

If you are a volunteer completing observation surveys

• Attend training on Wednesday, January 14 from noon to 1 p.m.
• Review instructions (PDF, 1MB)
• Review checklist (PDF, 1MB)
• Review safety tips (PDF, 1MB)

If you are a surveyor who has HMIS access

• Attend training on Thursday, January 15 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
• Review the ICA Knowledge Base

Sheltered count

If you are a shelter or transitional housing site that uses HMIS, please keep HMIS enrollment data updated and accurate. The Institute for Community Alliances (ICA), our HMIS system administrator, will reach out if data corrections are needed. If you are a site that does not use HMIS, you will need to submit aggregate data about the households who were in your program on the night of the PIT Count or complete surveys for each household. We will share more information via PIT.HIC@hennepin.us this winter. Reach out sooner if you have questions.

The 2025 Point in Time count found significantly fewer homeless families using emergency shelter, a marked reduction in unsheltered homelessness and fewer single adults experiencing homelessness overall.

Census aimed to learn where people spent the night on January 22, 2025

A team effort of more than 50 people, including county staff, and nonprofit shelter and outreach staff, identified 2,651 people staying in shelters and transitional housing programs and 427 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Those preliminary numbers compare with 3,370 and 496, respectively, in 2024.

The number of families in shelter decreased from 2,187 to 1,538. This 29.7% decrease was a result of targeted efforts to help families quickly transition from homelessness to housing, to prevent eviction and help families find other options in their networks. Even in the midst of a spike in demand in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Hennepin County was able to maintain our shelter all practice for families with children, with the goal that no child sleeps outside.

Unsheltered homelessness has decreased 33.5% since 2020

The number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness peaked in the 2020 Point in Time count, when 642 people were in unsheltered settings. This year’s count marks a 33.5% decrease in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness since 2020, and a 14% decrease from 2024. The change is partially a result of improved and diversified shelter settings that our nonprofit partners provided with county support, as well as the consistent presence of street outreach workers who help shoulder the administrative burden of transitioning into housing.

Staff continue to walk alongside people in shelters and on the street as they work to find housing. The county has continued to increase investments in increasing the quantity, quality and variety of affordable and supportive housing options for people exiting homelessness.

Housing ends homelessness

Since 2020, we and our partners have helped house more than 9,500 people. Of those, 96% have remained out of the homeless response system. Over time, our community is housing more people each year than we did the year before. In 2024, we helped transition 2,526 women, children and men from sheltered and unsheltered homelessness into permanent housing, the highest number yet. 

Get more information

• Infographic: 2025 Hennepin County Point in Time Count (PDF, 1MB)
• Minneapolis/Hennepin County PIT Count reports (HUDExchange.info)