Point-In-Time Count
County of San Bernardino 2024 Point In Time Count of Sheltered and Unsheltered Persons and Families: What’s New, Changes, and Highlights
The PITC of homeless individuals and families in San Bernardino County requires the involvement of key community persons and volunteers from each city and all unincorporated areas to help organize and implement the homeless count in their communities. Key persons and volunteers include representatives of local government, social service providers, law enforcement, municipal agencies, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, local businesses, civic groups, neighborhood associations, nonprofit agencies and current and formerly homeless individuals.
2024 Point-in-Time Count Requirements and Training Resource
You will need an Android smartphone, iPhone, or iPad to participate in the Point-in-Time Count Survey. Your device should be no older than three to four years old and have at least 100MB of available space. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon carriers are preferable. Please ensure your device meets the requirements below.
- If you have an iPhone, make sure your operating system is at iOS 13 or later.
- If you have an iPad, make sure your operating system is at iOS 13 or later, the iPad has cellular capabilities (not just Wi-Fi) and the ability to capture GPS information.
- If you have an Android phone, make sure your operating system is at Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or later.
On the day of the count, please arrive with your device fully charged and location services enabled. If you have a portable charging source for your device, please bring it with you as well.
Volunteer Training Calendar
2024 PITC Volunteer Training Power Point
How to Set Up the Mobile App and Survey
PITC 2024 Volunteer Registration
What is the San Bernardino County Point-in-Time Homeless Count?
The Point-in-Time count is a count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. The 2024 Point-In-Time Count will be conducted beginning on January 25, 2024. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires that Continuums of Care conduct an annual count of people experiencing homelessness who are sheltered in emergency shelter, transitional housing and Safe Havens. Continuums of Care must also conduct a count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on an annual basis. Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally.
When will the Point-in-Time Homeless Count take place?
The San Bernardino County Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey will be conducted on a pre-determined date within the last 10 days of each January. Community planning and organizing activities begin in September of the previous year.
Who should participate in the Homeless County?
The new methodology for the Point In Time Count of homeless individuals and families in the County of San Bernardino requires the involvement of key community persons and volunteers from each city and all unincorporated areas to help organize and implement the homeless count in their communities. Key persons and volunteers include representatives of local government, social service providers, law enforcement, municipal agencies, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, local businesses, civic groups, neighborhood associations, nonprofit agencies and current and formerly homeless individuals.
How can I participate in the Homeless Count?
More information and a registration link to sign-up to participate in the next San Bernardino County Point-in-Time Count and Survey will be available on the webpage: sbchp.sbcounty.gov or contact:
The Office of Homeless Services, call (909) 501-0610, or email HomelessRFP@hss.sbcounty.gov
Who coordinates the Point-in-Time Count?
The Point-In-Time-Count is sponsored by the San Bernardino County Homeless Partnership in collaboration with the Office of Homeless Services and in consultation with the Institute for Urban Initiatives.
Point-In-Time Count Archives
2023 Point-in-Time-Count Report
2022 Point-in-Time-Count Report
2021 Point-in-Time-Count Exception Letter
2020 Point-in-Time-Count Report
2019 Point In Time Count and Survey Report
2018 Point in Time Count Report
2017 San Bernardino County Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey
2017 San Bernardino County Preliminary PITC Report
2017 Homeless Youth Survey Final Report 2016 Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey: Executive Summary
2016 Homeless Count and Subpopulation Final Report
2015 Point-In-Time Count Final Report
2013 Point-In-Time Count Final Report
Upland 2012 Final Homeless Count and Survey Report
Related Publications
Background Information
The San Bernardino County Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey is a one-day street-based and service-based unduplicated count and subpopulation survey of sheltered and unsheltered individuals to identify how many people in San Bernardino County are homeless and their subpopulation characteristics on a given day.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the largest source of homeless program funding, requires that continuum of care (CoC) communities that receive HUD CoC funding (such as San Bernardino County) perform a “one-day, point-in-time” unduplicated count and subpopulation survey of sheltered (every year) and unsheltered (every other year) homeless individuals during the last week of January. Results of the Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey will provide the County and local cities with benchmark numbers that will serve as the basis for developing local community and countywide strategies to help people exit life on the streets and by which the success of our efforts to provide effective programs serving homeless individuals and families can be measured.
The unduplicated count of homeless persons will consist of two components: 1) an unsheltered count; and 2) a sheltered count. Both components will include those persons who fall within the HUD definition of a homeless person, which is as follows:
“A person is considered homeless only when (s)he lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and resides in one of the following places: 1) places not meant for human habitation, such as cars, parks, sidewalks, and abandoned buildings; 2) an emergency shelter; 3) transitional housing for homeless persons and who originally came from the streets or emergency shelter; or 4) a HUD-defined Safe Haven.”
In addition to the count, a brief homeless subpopulation survey will be administered simultaneously which will consist of questions from the County’s Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that identify the eight subpopulations that HUD requires communities to identify. They are: 1) chronically homeless persons; 2) chronically homeless families; 3) persons with HIV/AIDS; 4) persons with mental illness; 5) substance abusers; 6) unaccompanied youth under age 18; 7) veterans; and 8) victims of domestic violence.
Methodology
San Bernardino County 2016 Unsheltered and Sheltered Count and Subpopulation Survey Methodology
Frequently Asked Questions
The San Bernardino County Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey will be conducted on a pre-determined (TBA) date within the last 10 days of January. Community planning and organizing activities began in September of the prior year.
The Point-in-Time Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey will be conducted on the streets, and at residential and non-residential service locations in every city and unincorporated area in San Bernardino County.
Those individuals who on the day of the point-in-time count fall within the HUD definition of a homeless person which is as follows:
“An individual or family is considered homeless only when he/she lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and resides in one of the following:
(i) Public or private places not meant for human habitation such as a car, park, vacant lot, sidewalk, abandoned building, etc.;
(ii) A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designated to provide temporary living arrangements (including congregate shelters, transitional housing, and hotels and motels paid for by charitable organizations or by federal, state, or local government programs for low-income individuals);
(iii) An individual who is exiting an institution where he or she resided for 90 days or less and who resided in an emergency shelter or place not meant for human habitation immediately before entering that institution“
The Point-in-Time Homeless Count will involve conducting a count and subpopulation survey of both sheltered and unsheltered individuals on the streets, and at residential and non-residential service locations in every city and unincorporated area in San Bernardino County. On the day-of-the-count, teams of local volunteers, service providers and others will visit pre-identified locations and use a count/subpopulation survey instrument to record required information collected from each homeless individual encountered.
The San Bernardino County Office of Homeless Services, in consultation with the Institute for Urban Initiatives, shall recruit Key Persons from every public and private stakeholder group in the county to help organize and conduct the Homeless Count and Subpopulation Survey. Key Persons include people who are knowledgeable about local homelessness and where homeless people live, spend time and receive services in the community. Key Person Teams comprised of local stakeholders will be established in Planning Communities made up of incorporated cities and/or unincorporated jurisdictions in order to identify street and service locations where homeless people can be found and to help implement the count in their area.
In order to conduct a comprehensive count of homeless individuals and families in San Bernardino County, Community Key Persons and other volunteers are needed from every city and unincorporated area to help organize and implement the count in their communities. Key Persons and Volunteers shall include representatives of local government, social service providers, law enforcement, municipal agencies, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, local business, civic groups, neighborhood associations, nonprofit agencies, and current and formerly homeless individuals.