Point in Time Count

Hennepin County oversees the planning and operations of the Point in Time (PIT) count. In 2025, improvements are being made the PIT Count to reduce trauma and better serve people who are living in emergency shelters and unsheltered locations. This includes:

• Not asking for Information that has been previously collected and documented in our Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
• Homeless response system staff who are trained and familiar to people experiencing homelessness remain the primary contacts.
  

Media inquiries

For information about the count, contact Maria Elena Baca by email at maria.baca@hennepin.us or by phone at 612-348-7865.

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2024 PIT count found more homeless families using shelter, similar numbers of single adults experiencing homelessness and fewer unaccompanied young people

Census aimed to learn where people spent the night on January 25, 2024

The count found that in Hennepin County, 3,361 people were staying in shelters and transitional housing programs, and 496 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Those numbers compare with 2,843 and 469, respectively, in 2023.

The overall increase in people using shelter was driven by a spike in families experiencing homelessness. That number was up by 30% from 2023 and followed an increase of 79% from 2022 to 2023. As a result of Hennepin County’s shelter-all policy for families, more than 98% of families were in shelter or transitional housing and avoided unsheltered homelessness.

A number of causes factored into the increased demand for family shelter, including the end of the eviction moratorium, the winding down of pandemic-era supports for low-income households, inflation affecting prices of food and fuel and an increase in households newly arrived in Hennepin County without recourse to legal employment or benefits.

The number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness peaked in 2020, when 642 people were in unsheltered settings. This year’s count represents the largest number of people in shelter since the count began. 

The majority of people experiencing homelessness in Hennepin County make use of shelter and this year’s increase in shelter use also means it is also the largest total number of people counted since the count began. When the count started in 2005, 3,058 people were in shelters and 357 were in unsheltered settings.

Over the course of 2023, Hennepin County and our partners supported 2,171 people to exit homelessness into permanent housing. That represents an increase of 18% compared to 2022 and 57% compared to 2021. Even so, the increase in this year’s PIT count represents more people becoming homeless, primarily as a result of economic factors, than exiting homelessness to housing over the course of the year.

Get more information

• 2024 Point in Time count infographic (PDF, 1MB)
• Minneapolis/Hennepin County PIT Count reports from 2005 to 2022 (HUDExchange.info)