Lane County will stop Point-in-Time homeless counts, shift to HMIS data

Lane County officials announced they will discontinue the Point-in-Time (PIT) count this year after using the method for roughly 20 years, shifting primary measurement of homelessness to the Homeless Management Information System and its By Name List. County leaders said the move is meant to improve accuracy and free staff time to secure funding for services.

Since 2005 the county has conducted annual counts of people in shelters and biennial counts of unsheltered people in known congregating areas. County staff and the Poverty and Homelessness Board, which voted unanimously to support the change at its Dec. 18 meeting, now point to HMIS and the By Name List, launched in 2019, as more reliable operational tools. The county reports that HMIS gathers daily data from about 150 projects and more than 30 agencies, providing more continuous information than a single-night PIT snapshot.

County public information staff described persistent participation and accuracy challenges with the traditional PIT method, saying in their experience only about one in eight people asked would participate in the count. Data from the 2025 PIT count, the most recent, showed 3,509 people experiencing homelessness in Lane County, a 14 percent increase from 2024. Officials emphasized the shift is intended to redirect limited staff and volunteer time toward ensuring the county receives maximum funds for unhoused services.

The change does not automatically eliminate any survey of unsheltered people next year. Federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rules and funding requirements continue to influence local reporting practices and could require additional data collection or modified approaches. County leaders will need to reconcile federal reporting expectations with the county's preference for HMIS-based metrics.

For residents and service providers, the transition raises several practical questions. HMIS reflects people who engage with participating shelters, outreach programs and service agencies; people who avoid services, live in hidden locations, or are in rural parts of the county may be undercounted if reliance on HMIS is not paired with targeted outreach. Shifting methods also complicates year-to-year trend comparisons, which policymakers and voters use to assess whether interventions are reducing homelessness or where to direct resources.

The move reshapes how elected officials, advocates and voters should monitor outcomes. Watch for county updates that explain how HMIS counts and the By Name List will be used for reporting, funding applications and program planning. Attend Poverty and Homelessness Board meetings and ask for clear methodology, disaggregated data by geography and subpopulation, and plans for outreach to people not yet connected to services.

Our two cents? Treat this as a reset, not a replacement: press for transparent data, insist that rural and unsheltered residents are included, and use public meetings to make sure counting methods translate into dollars and services where people actually live.