Successful efforts to reduce and end homelessness require solid and consistent data at the local, regional and national levels. A standard methodology, with local flexibility, ensures accuracy and comparability of data across communities. Over time, as more communities participate in successive counts, we will move towards a national PiT Count approach.
The HPS Coordinated Count: Building Alignment |
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Area of Alignment |
Explanation |
For more information: |
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Defining the Core Populations |
HPS requires, at a minimum, that participating communities enumerate absolute homelessness. This includes individuals that are unsheltered as well as those staying in emergency shelters or in transitional housing. |
COH PiT Count Toolkit: Who to Count |
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Timing |
The HPS Coordinated Count will take place in the first sixty days of 2016. |
COH PiT Count Toolkit: When to Count |
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Survey Design |
Participating communities will include 10 Core Survey Questions in their PiT Count Surveys. Communities can add to the Core Questions as they see fit. |
COH PiT Count Toolkit: What to Ask |
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Data Analysis |
HPS will provide participating communities with software to easily input and analyze PiT Count data. |
COH PiT Count Toolkit: Data Analysis |
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Cross-Community Collaboration |
HPS is working with the COH to develop a web-based workspace for communities to network, share knowledge and increase collaboration across communities. |
Stay tuned! |
A common methodology will produce several benefits:
First, communities across Canada will have access to a reliable and tested methodology. Communities will not need to spend time and resources reinventing the wheel
Second, communities will be able to compare results, knowing that other communities have used similar methods and asked the same questions. Consistency within and between counts is critical to ensuring data reliability.
Third, we will have a national baseline count of homelessness. Combining results at the provincial and territorial levels will support the efforts of governments to plan and monitor progress on ending homelessness. This will give us powerful information on the prevalence of homelessness across Canadian communities, and in the long run enable comparisons of trends regionally and nationally.
Encouragingly, it is possible to coordinate PiT Counts across communities. In 2014, Alberta’s 7 Cities on Housing and Homelessness conducted coordinated PiT Counts with aligned methodologies. Now, they have the first-ever combined baseline of homelessness across the 7 cities. The HPS Coordinated Count provides a platform for other communities to do the same. In 2016, communities will have an increased capacity to conduct PiT Counts and as a result, we will benefit - across Canada - from a better understanding of homelessness.