Point-in-Time Count
The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count provides a snapshot of a community's homeless population.
The Point-in-Time (PIT) Count provides a snapshot of a community's homeless population.
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.
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:
The next PIT Count will take place on Jan. 25, 2024.
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.
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.