The 2020 Point-in-Time Homeless Count & Survey found a total of 3,974 individuals experiencing homelessness—2,318 (58.3%) people living sheltered and 1,656 (41.7%) people living unsheltered—in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, Texas.
The Coalition for the Homeless coordinates the annual Count on behalf of the local homeless response system, The Way Home.
The Count informs the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of the effectiveness of collaboration and homeless programs in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.
The Count results are combined with additional data points, like the information stored in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), to gauge progress of the local homeless response system.
“The fact that the unsheltered count has remained relatively unchanged the past three years points to that fact that our programs work, and, as a system, we have been able to fully maximize the housing resources available to maintain a steady state, which, in 2019, meant we secured permanent housing for more than 2,000 people,” said Michael C. Nichols, president/CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless.
