The Point-in-Time Count provides homeless assistance communities with data needed to understand the number and characteristics of persons who are homeless on a single night. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) mandates a PIT must be collected during the last 10 days of January.
The Point-in-Time only counts people who are literally homeless according to HUD's definition. There are two types of literally homeless included in the count:
- Sheltered people who are at emergency shelters, including Domestic Violence Shelters, Transitional Housing, including Domestic Violence and Hotel/Motel paid by an agency on the night of the PIT.
- Unsheltered people who meet the HUD definition of living in a place not meant for human habitation, such as a car, park, abandoned building, sidewalk, bus/train station, etc.
In 2014, Lincoln and Balance of State conducted an Expanded Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Point-in-Time Count that included youth up to age 24, who may have been couch surfing, staying temporarily with friends.