Identifying the characteristics of the local population.
What is a Point-in-Time Count?
On September 22nd, 2021, Flow Community Projects (Project Lead) and community partners organized Regina’s 3rd Point-in-Time (PiT) Count of Homelessness, finding 488 individuals experiencing homelessness. A Point-in-Time (PiT) Count is a strategy to help determine the extent of homelessness in a community on a given night, or at a single point in time. The 2021 Regina PiT-Count is supported through the Government of Canada’s Reaching Home program as administered in Regina by Namerind Housing Corporation.
The 2021 PiT-Count was comprised of three components. The first two components, a Street Count and a Sheltered Count, took place on September 22nd, 2021 from 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. During the Street Count, over 115 volunteers from the Regina community participated, taking to the streets in Survey Teams of 2-3 individuals, offering an anonymous housing survey to anyone they saw. Along with offering the survey, the Street Count Survey Teams utilized Tally Sheets to enumerate individuals who were experiencing homelessness but were not surveyed (sleeping under benches, encampments, declined to be surveyed but disclosed homelessness, etc.).
For the Sheltered Count, the same survey was offered by staff to individuals staying in their respective facilities. In addition to the survey, participating shelter agencies were asked to provide Administrative Facility Data (capacity, occupancy rates & non-person identifiable demographics) to the PiT-Count Project Lead.
The third component, a Magnet Event, was hosted at the mâmawêyatitân centre from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. the following day, on September 23rd, 2021. The event included a free chili and buns luncheon (food provided and prepared by the Regina Food Bank), a COVID-19 vaccine clinic (SHA, Four Directions), and a services fair (multiple agencies). The same PiT-Count Survey utilized during the Street Count the night before was offered to individuals at the Magnet Event, with one difference being survey participants were asked where they stayed the night before, to align data for the PiT-Count date of September 22nd, 2021.
PiT-Count Surveys were entered by PiT-Count Advisory Team Members in the weeks that followed the PiT-Count. Once entered, the PiT-Count data (raw survey data, administrative facility data, and tally sheet data) was subsequently sent to a third party, HelpSeeker Techologies, for further data verification, analysis and collaborative report writing.
The results from the PiT-Count allow a community to better understand the nature and extent of homelessness and the characteristics of the homeless population. A PiT Count should serve as critical part of a community’s response to homelessness. Conducting PiT Counts will enable communities to measure progress in reducing homelessness. A count can provide a vital benchmark, especially in communities where systematic data on homelessness is sparse, like it is in Regina.
Counts can significantly increase a community’s ability to take action towards ending homelessness by:
For more information, contact:
Addison Docherty
Executive Director, Flow Community Projects
Phone: 306.537.7476
Email: Addison@flowcommunityprojects.ca