education, resources, and advocacy
education, resources, and advocacy
Unveiling the 2024 PIT Count:
What We Learned About Homelessness in the TX BoS CoC
By: Ava Paredes
Every year in the last 10 nights of January, the Texas Balance of State Continuum of Care (CoC) conducts our annual Point-In-Time (PIT) Count. While this count is a HUD-Mandated census, it also a crucial tool programs across the country use to provide a snapshot of the individuals experiencing homelessness in their communities. We conducted our most recent 2024 TX BoS CoC PIT count on Thursday, January 25th, 2024.
Before we reveal the results of the 2024 PIT count we would like to first recognize the volunteers and PIT leads that made this census possible. This year we had over 400 volunteers helping out with this year’s PIT count. These folks contributed over 3,800 hours of planning, coordination, and surveying activities throughout the PIT count process. We are grateful for all of their hard work and continued support in ending homelessness across our state.
Considerations for the 2024 PIT Count
It is important to first acknowledge how we were able to account for the entirety of our geography. Considering that the Texas Balance of State CoC covers 215 counties in Texas, we are unable to gather data from every single county within our geography.
We do our best to cover as much ground as possible but we must employ other strategies to account for those counties that do not participate. To account for those areas in our geography that do not participate, we match up counties based on population size and estimate how many people are experiencing homelessness in the non-participating county based on the number of people experiencing homelessness in a similar participating county.
Higher Volunteer Turnout
Some other things to consider when looking at the 2024 PIT data have to do with some of the unique factors that our geography experienced on the night of the count. Before the count, there was some concern among folks in the Gulf Coast area about inclement weather. We were very fortunate that we experienced very clear and fair weather conditions on the night of the count not only along the gulf coast but across our CoC as well.
This led to increased volunteer turnout, as well as increased visibility of our unhoused neighbors. Overall this allowed us to identify and count more unhoused folks due to this increased visibility and availability of volunteers. We were also able to improve upon our volunteer training this year, publishing more recorded training than in past years, including a best practices training aimed at helping volunteers understand homelessness and how to interact with their unhoused neighbors in a trauma-informed way.
Increased Observation Surveys
Finally, the last consideration to keep in mind when looking at the 2024 PIT count is the increase in observation surveys that we noticed this year. Observation surveys can be utilized to count folks who do not consent to the survey, cannot consent to the survey because they are asleep, or are inaccessible during the survey.
With this survey, volunteers can count folks that they believe are homeless. This contributed to the increase in unsheltered homelessness that was observed this year which we will discuss later in the blog. With all of that, let’s get into the results of the 2024 Point-In-Time Count.
The Results
In the 2024 PIT Count, we counted 10,081 people experiencing homelessness within the geography of the Texas Balance of State CoC. 37% were sheltered, meaning they were living in an emergency shelter or transitional housing, and 63% were unsheltered. We counted 2990 people in Emergency Shelters, 723 people in Transitional Housing, and 6,368 people unsheltered or living in a place not meant for human habitation.
In terms of the age breakdown, we counted…
1,332 Children under the age of 18- 653 Youth between ages 18-24
- 1,772 Adults between ages 25-34
- 2,083 Adults between ages 35-44
- 1,904 Adults between ages 45-54
- 1,588 Adults between ages 55-64
- 749 Adults over the age of 65
1,332Demographic Data
In terms of demographic data, we found that 31% of respondents reported that they were Hispanic or Latine. Regarding the gender of respondents within our geography, we found that 62% of people experiencing homelessness identified as Male, whereas 37% identified as female. The remaining 1% was composed of: 41 individuals identifying as Transgender, 23 individuals identifying as Non-Binary, 11 individuals identifying as having a culturally specific identity, 28 individuals identifying as multiple genders, and 12 individuals identifying as questioning or a different identity not listed on the survey.
Of those who were asked the subpopulation-specific questions, we counted 568 veterans experiencing homelessness, 1,099 survivors of domestic violence, and 1,587 people who have been told or believe they have a mental health disorder. We counted 1,036 adults who responded to having a substance abuse disorder. We counted 75 individuals who responded to having HIV or AIDS. We also observed 1,751 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness on the night of the count. HUD defines chronic homelessness as having one or more qualifying conditions that hinder one’s ability to obtain and maintain housing, as well as being homeless for 12 months.
Our Analysis
In our annual Point-In-Time count, we gather demographic information on individuals’ race, ethnicity, gender, age, and disabilities as well as chronic homeless status, and domestic violence survivor status.
We must address inequities.
One thing that we have noticed year after year is the consistent prevalence of a racial disparity for Black and African American individuals experiencing homelessness. In 2022 we noticed that 22% of people experiencing homelessness in the Texas Balance of State CoC were black or African American despite being only 8% of the general population of Texas according to the US Census. In 2023 the percentage of black and African American people experiencing homelessness in our CoC increased to 23% despite only being 13% of the total population of Texas. And in 2024, 26% of unhoused individuals were black or African American.
This racial disparity demonstrates the work that still must be done to address the inequalities and inequities in our homeless response system. It also demonstrates the structural racism that still exists in our country that leads black and brown folks to be more likely to experience homelessness.
We need to analyze increased observations of unsheltered Texans.
In 2024, we noticed a 23% increase in our unsheltered numbers. We believe there are multiple factors that have contributed to this increase. For instance, we noticed that volunteers utilized observations more than in past years. Observation surveys are an optional survey that can be utilized in situations where the individual being surveyed cannot consent to the survey or is inaccessible to the survey. We noticed this year that there were 230 more observation surveys this year than in comparison to 2023. This is something that we are actively working to address in our training for upcoming PIT counts.
While these observations are a great tool to utilize in certain situations, we must emphasize to our volunteers that this should not be the first tool in their tool belt to utilize when it comes to surveying our unhoused neighbors.
Racial distributions were affected by changes in the survey.
One final thing that we would like to point out regarding this data is the change in racial demographic distributions due to the change in HUD’s Data Standards. In previous years the latine ethnicity question was its own category. In 2024 HUD changed the data standards so that ethnicity is now a part of the race question.
This caused a change in the distribution of Latine individuals as well as white individuals. In 2023 we had 37% of people identifying as Hispanic or Latine, and 72% of people identifying as white. Whereas in 2024 we had 31% of people identifying as Hispanic or Latine, and 41% of people identifying as white.
This change might be a more accurate reflection of the true demographics of homeless individuals in Texas because now folks can self-identify as just Hispanic and Latine rather than have to choose their race in addition to their ethnicity.
The 2024 TX BoS CoC PIT Graphic
Below this blog post is the 2024 Texas Balance of State CoC PIT Data Infographic. Please feel free to download this infographic, share it with your community, and implement it within your presentations as a visual aid to demonstrate the scope of homelessness in our CoC. If you have any questions regarding the infographic or the 2024 Point in Time Count results or to learn more about the 2025 PIT count, please reach out to data@thn.org.
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