ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – As Albuquerque completes its once-a-year count of unhoused individuals in the city, officials say they are improving outreach.
Each year, the city works with the Coalition to End Homelessness to conduct a count of the number of unhoused individuals in the city. The count is called the “Point in Time Count” or (PIT) because it gives a sense of the unhoused population at a single point during the year.
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“The PIT count helps our city’s application to HUD [United States Department of Housing and Urban Development] for important federal funding,” Albuquerque Homeless Innovations Officer Maria Wolfe said in a press release. “We are always looking at ways we can work together with the Coalition and our partners to learn from previous years, fill in gaps, and ultimately get better data.”
For the most recent count, the Albuquerque Community Safety Department took on new procedures to boost outreach and try to get a more accurate count, the city says. Part of that included taking 47 people to local shelters during the count.