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Point in Time Count

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Point in Time Count of Cape and Islands Homeless

The annual Point in Time Count of the Cape and Islands homeless is required by the Continuum of Care (CoC) Grant Program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness conducts the annual Point in Time Count that counts the number of people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters, transitional housing, on the street, in cars, abandoned buildings, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Counts are conducted annually in every community and do not count households living in motels nor those that are doubled-up and living with family and friends.

2023 Annual Point in Time Results

The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness has released its 2023 findings from the Annual Point in Time Count which took place on January 24, 2023, on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The Point in Time (PIT) counts people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters, transitional housing, motels (if paid for by an agency), on the street, in cars, in abandoned buildings, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Counts are conducted annually in every community in the United States during the last ten days of January. Traditionally, volunteers from dozens of agencies across the Cape and Islands assist in collecting information during the PIT count. As with the 2022 count, in 2023 HUD encouraged COVID measures to ensure the health and safety of staff, volunteers, and homeless persons.

On the Cape and Islands, the total number of homeless persons (adults and children, sheltered and unsheltered) counted on the night of January 24 was 427, an increase of 30 from last year, and the highest number of homeless persons counted in the past ten years. This upsurge in numbers may be attributable to increased collaboration and expansion of survey efforts on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Likewise, the availability of COVID funding and ESG funding enabled agencies to provide more opportunities for Emergency Shelter utilization through expanded motel voucher programs. The larger numbers of homeless persons from 2022 to 2023 were represented in both Family Emergency Shelter and in Transitional Housing: the number of persons in Family Shelter increased from 156 to 175 (N=19) persons. The number of individuals in Transitional Housing rose from 90 in 2022 to 100 in 2023 (N=10). The increase in housed persons is offset by the 9% reduction in unsheltered homeless persons counted in 2023: from 35 in 2022 to 32 in 2023 (N=3).

Point in Time Archive

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