Friends,

This January, members of the Tipping Point team joined more than 500 volunteers who fanned out across our streets, parks, and neighborhoods to conduct San Francisco’s Point-in-Time (PIT) Count of people experiencing homelessness. The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) collects this data every two years, and uses it to track progress and secure essential federal funding to address homelessness and housing instability.

Tipping Point’s goal to cut chronic homelessness in half is rooted in data from the 2017 PIT Count, which showed approximately 2,100 people experiencing chronic homelessness. We will measure the progress and success of our Chronic Homelessness Initiative, in part, by the results of future PIT Counts.

While our grantees, staff, and public sector partners agree the PIT Count doesn’t tell the whole story—it's limited to a single night and only takes place every two years—it’s the most consistent tool currently available. Tipping Point has invested in improved data collection and analysis to supplement the PIT Count and further inform our collective efforts to reduce homelessness. Please read on to learn more.

All my best,

Daniel

CEO + Founder, Tipping Point Community

Snapshot: Point-in-Time Count

Cities and counties across the United States conduct PIT counts to establish a baseline number of people experiencing homelessness in their community. In addition to informing local targets and policy planning, the Department of Housing and Urban Development funds rental subsidies and other supportive services on the basis of the PIT counts. Every two years in San Francisco, hundreds of volunteers participate in the count of unsheltered people from 8pm-12am on an evening in January. Volunteers receive an hour of training, then travel throughout the city. The sheltered count is conducted by service providers within shelters, navigation centers, hospitals, and jails.

The unsheltered count in San Francisco is “visual-only,” meaning that volunteers do not engage with people experiencing homelessness while counting them. During subsequent weeks, HSH follows up with a subset of around 1,000 people to survey them in detail about their experience with homelessness. For example, we learn about the circumstances that led to homelessness and the traits of people experiencing homelessness, such as age, health, and race. San Francisco’s visual-only count is intended to provide a consistent comparison from one PIT count to the next, but we know that we are likely undercounting, missing individuals and families who are "doubled up" (i.e. staying with others), and those who are housing insecure and moving in and out of homelessness over the course of a year.

San Francisco is unlikely to shift away from the visual-only PIT methodology in the near future, given the importance of maintaining a consistent point of comparison. However, with the ONE System now online for families and close to completion for adults, the City can rely on even more current and robust data when serving our neighbors experiencing homelessness. The ONE System offers a unified, up-to-date view of people experiencing homelessness, what services they’ve received, and whether or not they now have housing. While biennial PIT counts will remain important to track progress and to maintain federal support for local rental subsidies, City officials hope the ONE System will help accelerate the process of reducing homelessness in San Francisco.

Who's Making It Happen

Valerie Caplan

“While the methodology of the PIT count is far from perfect, it is currently one of the best tools we have to measure our progress towards ending homelessness in San Francisco.”

Valerie Caplan is a member of the data and performance team at HSH and managed this year’s PIT Count. She’s currently working with a colleague at DataSF to do a longitudinal analysis of the PIT data from 2013 to the present, harmonizing the data so the City can more easily compare their findings year over year. Valerie previously worked in the private sector conducting evaluations of federal programs. She says, “working at HSH has allowed me to stay connected to the world of research in a way that feels more grounded and meaningful.”

What We're Reading

Counting homeless people in Oakland: ‘A reminder of how horrible it is to be living outside’ - “Everyone is deserving of dignity—a house, food, health care…We can afford that as a society.” Reflections from volunteers for Oakland's Point-in-Time Count.

Housing meant for the Bay Area's poorest residents is slowly vanishing - Uncertainty from the recent federal shutdown and lucrative private market alternatives are consuming our region's affordable housing stock. Local governments are struggling to come up with incentives that can reverse this process or even slow it.

Chronic Homelessness Initiative Overview

There are approximately 2,100 people experiencing chronic homelessness on any given night in San Francisco. Tipping Point’s $100 million pledge marks the single largest private investment to address homelessness in City history.

Tipping Point takes a three-pronged approach to our impact goal. See here for more details. If you are receiving this email as a forward, subscribe here to receive this update monthly.

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