Every other January, hundreds of volunteers canvass the streets in Sacramento County to conduct the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, the federally required census of unhoused people.
What they observe is what they report — regardless of what any politician, agency or interest group hopes the numbers will show. The non-profit Sacramento Steps Forward — where I serve as CEO — is the administrator of the PIT Count. We act independently.
The PIT is the only federally required measure of homelessness in a community. But it doesn’t paint the full picture — nor does the Homeless Information Management System, a database we also administer. Viewed together, these two data points provide a fuller understanding of homelessness in Sacramento County…