Download the 2024 Unsheltered PIT Count Methodology Info Sheet
Watch a video with details on the methodology
View a letter from University of Washington researchers about the methodology
Journal Article: Innovating a Community-driven Enumeration and Needs Assessment of People Experiencing Homelessness
What We Did
Prior to 2022, the unsheltered PIT was conducted by volunteers one night in January, using a census and survey. The PIT is widely understood to be an undercount, especially as it represents a single night rather than a full year.
The KCRHA received approval from HUD to conduct the 2024 unsheltered count using a methodology called Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS). This methodology is consistent with the 2022 PIT Count. RDS has been shown to be effective in reaching people who are not already connected to services, providing a data point that supplements client data in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and other systems. This methodology has a strong track record for producing high-quality demographic and population estimates, confirmed by numerous studies by academic researchers and the World Health Organization.
KCRHA is working with researchers at the University of Washington and people with lived experience of homelessness to ensure validity in design, data collection, and analysis. We will work with these researchers to have the final methodology approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB) and results will be peer reviewed for publication. Data will be collected using a digital survey and will not include qualitative interviews like the 2022 count.
For the 2024 unsheltered PIT, KCRHA gathered data from January 22 – February 2, 2024, and then worked with an expert statistician at the University of Washington to advise on sampling design and statistical modeling. The sheltered count was pulled from the Homelessness Management Information system (HMIS) data on January 25, 2024.
How This Works
- Start interviews at places like encampments and day centers across King County
- Ask people who were interviewed to connect us with other people who could be interviewed too
- People can then be interviewed at “hubs” hosted at places like libraries
- Those people are asked to connect us with more people they know
- Interviewees were compensated for their time with a $25 prepaid debit card and provided bus tickets to and from hubs.
- In addition to completing an interview, participants complete a demographic and network survey
- Our Research and Analytics Team used these surveys to produce population estimates for the unsheltered PIT