Point in Time Count

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.

2020 Annual Point in Time Results

The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness 2020 findings from the Annual Point in Time Count, which took place on January 28, 2020, on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, indicate that the total number of homeless persons (adults and children, sheltered and unsheltered) on the night of the 2020 count was 336, a decrease of 35 persons from last year. Two trends are worth noting. First, the overall decrease in total homeless persons may be attributable in part to the removal of a project from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that had been previously considered a Family Emergency Shelter. The agency which administered the project determined that, because entrance eligibility did not include a homeless component, the project should be removed from the roster of homeless programs in the Cape and Islands region. Second, while the overall number of unsheltered individuals increased by 12 from the 2019 Point in Time Count. Barnstable County experienced a decrease of 2. An expansion of PIT volunteer participation on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard may have contributed to the increase in numbers of unsheltered homeless persons (by 2 and 12, respectively) counted on the islands.