Point in Time Count
Point in Time Count of Cape and Islands Homeless
The annual Point in Time Count of the Cape and Islands homeless is required by the Continuum of Care (CoC) Grant Program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness conducts the annual Point in Time Count that counts the number of people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters, transitional housing, on the street, in cars, abandoned buildings, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Counts are conducted annually in every community and do not count households living in motels nor those that are doubled-up and living with family and friends.
2025 Annual Point in Time Results
The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness has released its 2025 findings from the Annual Point in Time Count which took place on January 28 into January 29, 2025, on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The Point in Time (PIT), a federally mandated activity, counts people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters, transitional housing, motels (if paid for by an agency), on the street, in cars, in abandoned buildings, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Counts are conducted annually in every community in the United States during the last ten days of January. In support of the count, staff from partner agencies across the Cape and Islands assist in collecting information by completing surveys with those experiencing homelessness.
On Cape Cod and the Islands, the total number of homeless individuals (adults and children, sheltered and unsheltered) counted on the night of January 28th was 365, a decrease of 203 from the previous year. This decrease is largely due to a loss of 235 temporary family shelter beds over the past year. The number of individuals in emergency shelters increased by 163, which was attributed to a winter response overflow day. The “feels like” temperature dropped below 32°F on the night of the count, triggering additional winter response shelter overflow resources.
See MA-503 2025 PIT Trend Analysis 5-30-25
2024 Annual Point in Time Results
The Cape and Islands Regional Network on Homelessness released its 2024 findings from the Annual Point in Time Count which took place on January 23 into January 24, 2024, on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The Point in Time (PIT) counts people experiencing homelessness in emergency shelters, transitional housing, motels (if paid for by an agency), on the street, in cars, in abandoned buildings, and in other places not meant for human habitation. Counts are conducted annually in every community in the United States during the last ten days of January. In support of the count, staff from partner agencies across the Cape and Islands assist in collecting information by completing surveys with those experiencing homelessness.
On Cape Cod and the Islands, the total number of homeless individuals (adults and children, sheltered and unsheltered) counted on the night of January 23rd was 568, an increase of 141 from the previous year. This increase is reflected most notably in the number of people in Emergency Assistance (EA) family shelter, which increased by 34 families and 125 individuals. The total number of unsheltered individuals also increased from 32 to 76. This increase can be attributed to warm weather conditions on the night of the count. Winter response shelter overflow resources are triggered when the “feels like” temperature drops below 32°. The temperature on the day of January 23rd ranged between 35° and 40°. As such, the number of sheltered individuals (who would have access to hotels in colder conditions) decreased from 120 to 97 individuals.
See MA-503 2024 PIT Trend Analysis here >>>
