Point-in-Time Count

Edmonton has a longstanding commitment to understanding homelessness through systematic data collection and analysis. Our community’s first homelessness count, known as the Homeless Count, was conducted on March 18, 1999, under the leadership of the Edmonton Taskforce on Homelessness and established a foundation for coordinated planning and service delivery across the community.

Between 2000 and 2024, Edmonton’s counts, initially under the Homeless Count and, following 2018, under the PiT Count, were conducted on a biennial basis. Beginning in 2025, enumeration has occurred annually, in alignment with the Everyone Counts methodology.

The 2025 Count was conducted over a 24-hour period from October 21st to October 22nd, 2025.

We extend our sincere appreciation to the individuals who shared their experiences of homelessness. Their perspectives and insights are reflected throughout this report and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of homelessness within the community.

The Point-in-Time (PiT) Count is a community-wide initiative that requires careful planning, coordination, and collaboration. This work was made possible through the contributions of people with lived and living experience, Red Road Healing Society (the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home Indigenous Community Entity), Indigenous and community partners, sector staff, volunteers, the planning committee, and all levels of government. Collectively, these efforts support the integrity of the PiT Count and ensure the results are grounded in local context and shared responsibility.

Working in close collaboration with Red Road Healing Society Edmonton, whose leadership guided the respectful integration of Indigenous cultural teachings into the Point-in-Time (PiT) Count process has been a gift to our community. Their support helped ensure that the Count was conducted in a manner that was more culturally informed and community centered.

We also acknowledge the contributions of Knowledge Keepers and Cultural Facilitators, provided through Red Road Healing Society, who were present at each base site on the day of the Count. They offered cultural guidance and support, including the opportunity for volunteers to participate in smudging before surveys began, ensuring the process was carried out with care, respect, and cultural awareness.

Methodology

The PiT Count employs three complementary data collection methodologies, designed to capture a snapshot of homelessness in Edmonton as accurately as possible. Each method addresses different times, locations, and populations to provide a multi-dimensional perspective:

Survey and Enumeration by Volunteers : Over 100 Community and sector volunteers conduct direct engagement with individuals experiencing homelessness across predetermined walking routes across the city.

Observed Parkland Count by Trained Outreach Workers: Trained homelessness-sector outreach teams conducted systematic observations in parks, river valleys, and other outdoor environments, including locations where individuals experiencing homelessness may not engage with formal services.

Overnight Administrative count: Administrative data is collected from emergency shelters, violence against women shelters, transitional housing programs, hospitals and emergency rooms (people with no fixed address), Alberta corrections (people with no fixed address), recovery and treatment facilities (people with no fixed address) and other temporary accommodation facilities to capture the number of individuals residing in these settings during the night of the count.

Background

Communities across Canada are invited to take part in the fifth nationally coordinated Point-in-Time (PiT) Count of homelessness, taking place within the enumeration window of October 1 to November 30, 2025. Each community can choose a date within that window that works best for them, taking into account lessons learned from the timing of last year’s count.

Previous counts in 2016, 2018, 2020–2022, and 2024 have played a key role in building both local and national understandings of homelessness.

*Beginning in 2024, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) adjusted the way the PiT Count was administered so the enumeration would be conducted annually, while the survey component would occur once every three years with the next survey in 2027.

About Volunteering

What does a volunteer do?

Volunteers, who are 18+, will be asked to walk through a specific area of the city, identify individuals who may be experiencing homelessness for the street count/enumeration.

As such volunteers should be able to:

Comfortably walk outdoors for a distance of multiple city blocks (exact distance will vary based on assigned areas)

Carry a backpack with supplies and engagement gifts for participants

Stand for long periods of time

Feel comfortable conversing with many individuals in a short period of time

Have a mobile device with access to a data network (noting that volunteers will be eligible for compensation for costs of mobile data used for the PiT count)

Not required, but would be an asset:

Previous de-escalation training

Previous Trauma informed care training

First Aid training

Why should you volunteer?

Volunteering enables us to collect the vital data needed to have the best information available for collective efforts to prevent and end homelessness. With the training provided, volunteers also enable us ensure the people we encounter during the count are afforded a friendly and supportive interaction while they provide their personal information.

What are the safety measures in place for volunteers conducting the PiT Count?

While we don’t anticipate volunteers being in unsafe situations, we recognize the need to maintain strict safety protocols to ensure all volunteers have an enjoyable experience.

Below are procedures we have in place to ensure your safety.

Base Sites

We have designated base sites for all the walking routes to ensure every volunteer has a safe, warm, and secure place from which to start and end their shifts and drop in for breaks as needed throughout their time completing the PiT Count. To ensure your safety:

You are required to check in at the base site at the beginning of your shift and check out upon completion.
If you must leave your shift early, please ensure you check out at the base site, or else we will consider you missing and escalate the issue.
There is a base site coordinator at each base site. Please take the Base Site Coordinator’s number with you so you can call in case of any issue.
During your shift, the Base Site coordinator may periodically check on your team. Feel free to share with them if things are not going well or if you need any support.
If you are feeling too cold, please come back to your base sites to warm up and have a snack.

Working in Teams

Working in teams is a vital component of the count. Volunteers will be assigned in teams of minimally two people, and multiple teams will be assigned to neighborhoods so that the PiT Count is a visible effort in the community.

Volunteers conducting street counts must remain within sight of their team at all times and should never be alone.

Visibility

A reflective vest will be provided to ensure high visibility to drivers and easy identification by those you approach. It must be worn at all times during your shift.

Personal Safety while Conducting a Count

Your personal safety during your shift is the priority. If at any point during a count you do not feel safe, you are not required to finish the count. End the count and leave safely.

Emergency Situations – CALL 911

If you or your partner are in a life-threatening situation, or you encounter a medical emergency or criminal activity, CALL 911. After calling 911, call or text to notify your base site coordinator.

Non-Emergency Situations

For any other situations you encounter, if you feel the need to debrief, or if you are not feeling safe, call your base site coordinator. Please feel free to go back to the base site to debrief or if you need a safe space.

What to Wear/Bring?

The event runs in all weather. Please dress for the weather and your personal comfort.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of PiT Count?

The purpose of PiT Count is to gather data to help understand factors in homelessness, give a human face to the statistics, and develop and implement effective housing supports, programs, and interventions.

PiT Counts are comprised of two components:

A PiT Count Enumeration. The PiT Count enumeration is the ‘count’ providing an estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness within a determined geographical area over a 24-hour period. It also identifies the type of location (sheltered and unsheltered) where they spent the night.

It provides a consistent data source to understand changes in communities and across Canada over time.
The enumeration includes canvassing outdoor areas with teams of volunteers and collecting occupancy data from various sources including shelters, transitional housing, service and systems (health, justice etc.) providers.

A Survey on Homelessness (conducted every three years, no survey 2025) which includes a set of standardized survey questions to collect information on the characteristics and experiences of people experiencing homelessness for consistent data comparison. This information helps community organizations, and all orders of government better understand and serve individuals. Participation is voluntary.

The purpose of a PiT Count is NOT intended to be:

An exact number of people experiencing homelessness in a community as:

Volunteers may not encounter every person experiencing homelessness, especially hidden homelessness (couch surfing, provisionally-accommodated).
Participation is voluntary.
A 24-hour period count is not able to measure people who cycle in and out of homelessness as the reality is each day, the number of people experiencing homelessness varies due to inflow into homelessness and outflow into permanent housing.

Why do we conduct PiT Counts?

The nationally coordinated PiT count presents an opportunity to create a national picture of homelessness. The goal is to develop an estimate of how many people are experiencing homelessness during a 24-hour period.

Mandated as part of federal Reaching Home funding, Homeward Trust, as Edmonton’s designated Community Entity, is responsible for coordinating Edmonton’s Point in Time Count in collaboration with, Red Road Healing Society as the designated Indigenous Entity, and sector partners and in accordance with the core standards outlined by the Reaching Home program.

With consistent data points and methodology, the count enables annual comparison for better system planning and knowledge. The information collected is a valuable tool for identifying the pathways to homelessness. It helps advocate for essential resources, increase awareness, and build collaboration within the homelessness-serving sector and across other sectors, such as health and corrections.

How is the data collected?

Staff from participating organizations, sector and community volunteers and service agencies conduct the PiT Count along a specified route to engage with individuals who self-identify as experiencing homelessness.

The enumeration includes canvassing outdoor areas with teams of volunteers between 8am and 9:30pm and collecting occupancy data over a 24-hour period from various sources including; but not limited to, shelters, transitional housing, service and systems (health, justice etc.) provider.

Why does it matter?

The PiT Count is a methodology used globally to enumerate homelessness. It adds to information from the By Name List (BNL), filling gaps between systems and helping us build a more complete picture of the state of homelessness. It contributes to our efforts to prevent and end homelessness, and provides opportunities:

to share information about the state of homelessness and build awareness about the ongoing and complex work being done to prevent and end homelessness and;
for community engagement by engaging volunteers to assist with the count, and who, through talking and listening to people experiencing homelessness gain an understanding of the many faces and individuals experiencing homelessness.

How often do you conduct the PiT Count?

Beginning in 2024, Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada (HICC) adjusted the way the PiT Count was administered so the enumeration would be conducted annually, while the survey component would occur once every three years with the next survey in 2027.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who is contributing to this year’s PiT Count. Your time, effort, and dedication are making this important work possible. A special thank you to the 2025 PiT Planning Committee for your leadership and commitment as we prepare for this year’s count.