Scouring everywhere from city streets to rural enclaves, people throughout the country have spent the past couple winter weeks taking part in the nation’s most extensive collection of data on homelessness.

This data collection event, the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, tallies the number of homeless persons living in the United States. The count includes figures for people living in emergency shelters, those living in transitional housing, and persons who are unsheltered, living outside, in a vehicle, or other place not suitable for habitation. Data provides insight into the extent of homelessness in the country and is a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) for any community receiving federal housing assistance.

On Feb. 3, Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP) staff conducted a count of persons experiencing homelessness in Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, and Wood County. Working in teams of two, staff traveled backroads looking for encampments, looked in parking lots and behind buildings, and searched every possible location to assess the extent of homelessness in these four counties. 

“There’s a lot of preparation leading up to it,” GLCAP Adult & Youth Assistant Director Jamie Brubaker said. “Leading up to the count, we collect all known locations where people who are unsheltered have been seen.” 

The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO) analyzes the data to identify census tracts most likely to have unsheltered homelessness, which helps guide where teams canvass on the night of the count.

The GLCAP team members divide the work according to county, establishing routes within each county to canvas the areas and conduct the count during evening hours. Along with Brubaker, GLCAP PIT team members included Sonya Adcock, April Allison, Niki Brough, Jamie Collins, Jennifer Davis, Cathie Elwood, Amanda Emch, Michelle Foster, Julia Galbraith, Stephanie Grasmick, Perian Hall, Shawna Hartman, Christina Keller, Katrina Ross, Tina Smith and Will Weinheimer.

Though the PIT count typically takes place during one of the last ten days of January, most Ohio counties delayed their counts due to extreme weather that hit the area near the end of the month. In any case, the winter-season timing of the PIT count is deliberate: the cold weather encourages more people experiencing homelessness to seek help from emergency shelters, allowing for more accurate and reliable count as sheltered individuals are easier to count than unsheltered individuals. Likewise, the timing better captures the extent of unsheltered homelessness, as those who are living outside in the cold are those who have the least resources to seek shelter.

This year, Brubaker said four unsheltered homeless individuals were found throughout GLCAP’s four-county PIT count region. In Sandusky County, two individuals were found by an on-duty officer with the Fremont Police Department, who partnered with GLCAP staff to assist with the count.

“Working with the police department was great,” Brubaker said. ““Our team was able to offer an emergency housing option for the night and set up an appointment the next morning to begin the screening process for permanent housing assistance. We hope to partner with other area police departments in the future.”

An additional component of GLCAP’s PIT count includes a service-based count that takes place for one week following the evening search. During this service-based count, GLCAP and partner agencies such as local United Ways, faith-based organizations, and Departments of Job and Family Services will ask individuals seeking services if they were unhoused on the night of Feb. 3. If so, these figures will be added to the total count. 

Once this count is complete, COHHIO aggregates data from all counties and submits the final report to HUD.

In 2024 (the most recently available national PIT data), 771,480 people were counted, an increase of 18 percent from 2023’s count of 653,104 people. That same year, GLCAP assisted 737 households by providing safe, stable housing to prevent homelessness, including 249 veteran households.

GLCAP provides housing support in Erie, Huron, Ottawa, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, and Wood counties, and provides veteran-specific housing assistance through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program in Erie, Hancock, Huron, Lorain, Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Seneca, Wood and Wyandot County.

Details on GLCAP’s housing services are available at www.glcap.org/housinghelp or by calling 1-800-775-9767.