On the night of Jan. 22, in compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition hosted the annual Point-in-Time Count on behalf of the TN-500 Continuum of Care.
Officials said, "PIT Count is intended to serve as a snapshot of homelessness on a single night in January. The data collected through PIT Count is a crucial element HUD uses in determining how to best allocate resources for housing and services to providers across the country; however, there are many other factors that must be considered when painting the comprehensive picture of homelessness in our region.
"Implementing PIT Count in the 11-county region that makes up the TN-500 Continuum of Care is a highly collaborative effort led by CRHC and carried out by partner agencies and volunteers to ensure thoroughness and accuracy."
Methodology and Implementation
The 2025 PIT Count had three survey pathways for data collection:
1. Observational – Conducted by observation on individuals who were suspected to be experiencing homelessness but declined or were unable to participate in the survey (due to sleeping, incapacitation, or being otherwise unreachable).
2. Standard Survey – Default survey consisting of essential questions mandated by HUD.
3. Universal Housing Assessment Survey – Survey doubled as enrollment into the CoC’s Coordinated Entry System, ultimately linking participants to housing services.
"CRHC’s aim in involving a large coalition of service providers and volunteers from across the CoC was to develop locally specific efforts that would be most yield the most accurate count across our large geographic area," officials said.
Counting efforts took four primary forms:
• Surveying at brick-and-mortar locations where persons were likely to present;
• Outreach conducted to known encampment locations;
• A “search party” style coverage of the remainder of each county; and
• Homeless Management Information System data collected by HMIS-participating shelters.
"CRHC’s data team is currently working hard to de-duplicate and double-check data to ensure an accurate count," officials said. "While we are unable to report specific numbers at this time, the count was successful in that all 11 counties had comprehensive approaches to collecting surveys from those experiencing homelessness in each respective county."
The CRHC will provide another update with the official 2025 PIT Count results later this year. Results from previous years’ PIT Counts can be found at CRHC’s website.