All the data used in these analyses and charts come from HUD Exchange.
Point in Time estimates (including chronicity figures) and system capacity estimates can be found here.
System Performance Measures (SPMs) can be found here.
In addition to comparing Austin to other large TX cities, we include data from a small sample of cities in other parts of the country. We included cities, like Austin, with a tight rental market and/or a relatively high proportion of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. The five cities outside of Texas are Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Point In Time Estimates:The Point in Time (PIT) estimate is a one day approximation of the number of people experiencing homelessness in January. These numbers include both people living unsheltered and those living in shelters. The unsheltered estimates almost exclusively come from an in-person count that’s conducted at the end of January. The numbers for Austin in 2021 and 2022, due to Covid-19, rely on estimates from our local Homeless Management Information System (HMIS).
PIT estimates are for Continuums of Care (CoC), which are often larger than cities. To account for this, we multiply the proportion of a CoC’s beds from the Housing Inventory Count that are in the central city by that CoC’s PIT count number to get an approximate PIT estimate for the central city.
Chronicity:A person meets the definition of being chronically homeless if they are living with a disability, live outside or in a shelter, and have been homeless for 1) at least 12 months, or 2) at least 4 separate occasions in the last 3 years. More details about this definition can be found here.
Every year, Continuums of Care (CoCs) across the U.S. conduct an inventory of housing sometime during the last 10 days of January. Working with service providers, CoCs tally the number of beds and units available to serve people experiencing homelessness (or served by Permanent Housing programs) and do so by program type (including shelter beds and beds available for Rapid Re-Housing and Permanent Supportive Housing). For more information about the Housing Inventory Count, visit this link.
Performance Measures:Exits to Permanent Housing: This measure is a percentage of all people who exit a homeless program (whether shelter, outreach, or a permanent housing program) to a permanent housing situation. This can include owning a housing unit, renting a housing unit (with or without a subsidy), or living with friends or family in a permanent set-up. For more about this and the measures below, see here.
Permanent Housing Positive Exits or Retention: Because Permanent Housing (PH) projects can be a permanent housing solution for some people – especially those who are not able to live independent of the supportive services and/or housing subsidy – CoCs also track how many people housed in non-Rapid Re-Housing PH programs remain in PH or exit PH to a permanent housing situation (including the examples given in the previous paragraph).
Returns to Homelessness: One long-term housing stability measure is the returns to homelessness metric. This assesses a housing program’s and CoC’s success in providing people the support needed to exit a program to permanent housing and not become homeless again in a relatively short period of time.