Everyone Counts: Standards for Participation in a Point-in-Time Enumeration
point-in-time-denombrement-ponctuel-eng.htmlOfficial title: Everyone Counts – Guide to Point-in-Time Enumerations in Canada, 1st Edition – Standards for participation
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Standards for participation in the enumeration
A Point-in-Time enumeration (PiT enumeration or simply “enumeration”) is an estimate of the number of people experiencing homelessness within a determined geographical area on a single night. It also identifies the location where they spent the night: in shelters, transitional housing, or unsheltered locations. Some communities are also able to enumerate homelessness in other locations, such as institutional settings (e.g., health or correctional systems). Conducted over subsequent years, PiT enumerations can be used by the community to track progress in reducing homelessness and identify changes in the location that individuals experiencing homelessness spend the night.
The two main components of an enumeration are:
- The sheltered enumeration, which is obtained from administrative data systems and/or shelter administrators; and
- The unsheltered enumeration, which is collected by outreach workers, homeless-sector staff, and/or volunteers. The coverage areas should be similar to those included in prior full PiT counts.
The aim of an enumeration is to gather as complete a picture of sheltered and unsheltered homelessness as possible in a community on one night.
Core and Recommended Standards
The nationally coordinated PiT enumeration approach lays out Core Standards for methodology that guide how the enumeration is conducted in participating communities, to ensure consistent data collection processes across communities and over time. This consistency allows comparisons of data from different PiT enumerations and from different regions. These core standards were developed with recognition for the need to balance methodological rigour and community flexibility, to both retain data comparability and allow flexibility for the approach to be tailored to each community's local context. The approach also includes Recommended Standards, which are not mandatory, but are encouraged, based on effective practices used by communities in Canada.
Core Standards
Core Standard 1
The PiT enumeration refers to a single night between October 1 and November 30, and is conducted over a maximum of 24 hours.
Core Standard 2
The PiT enumeration is led by the Reaching Home Community Entity (CE), the Indigenous Homelessness CE, a collaboration between the two, or by a contracted third party.
Core Standard 3
The PiT enumeration coordinator works closely with the Homeless Individuals and Families Information System (HIFIS) Lead or the lead for the community Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data, as well as any other local shelter data coordinator, where applicable. This facilitates the efficient transfer of accurate enumeration data for reporting.
Core Standard 4
Encampments and other unsheltered areas are Core Locations and are included in the enumeration. The unsheltered enumeration is the community's best assessment of how many people experienced homelessness in these settings on a single night, and are reported separately:
Encampments: a group of visible structures (e.g., tents or shacks) where two or more individuals are staying. This enumeration may be completed earlier in the evening of the enumeration or the following morning.
Other unsheltered overnight locations: public locations (e.g., streets, alleys, parks or other green spaces), transit stations, abandoned buildings, vehicles; and other outdoor locations where people experiencing homelessness are known to sleep.
The unsheltered data collection process can cover the entire community, known locations within a community, a statistical sampling approach (typically in large communities), or a mix of these approaches.
Core Standard 5
The unsheltered enumeration is determined via screening questions administered on the night of the PiT Count or the following morning, and can be supplemented with observed homelessness (i.e., a count of individuals who are observed to be spending the night outdoors, who are known by the surveyor to be currently experiencing homelessness, or who are exhibiting clear indications of not having a home to return to).
Observed homelessness should be limited to instances where survey teams are unable to engage with someone (e.g., they are sleeping or unable to respond to the screening questions), and can be considered in encampments where it is not possible to engage with everyone. Narrow criteria should be used to avoid including individuals who are not experiencing homelessness and to minimize double counting.
Core Standard 6
Shelters for people experiencing homelessness are a Core Location and are included in the enumeration. This component of the enumeration includes the number of people who spend the night of the enumeration in:
- emergency shelters, including extreme weather shelters;
- Domestic Violence (DV) shelters; and
- hotel or motel rooms, which are supplied in lieu of shelter beds.
The enumeration for each shelter type should be reported as a separate component of sheltered counts. Shelter counts are based on data collected by shelter data systems, where available (for example, HIFIS or other HMIS), and reports of shelter occupancy for services that are not covered by HIFIS/HMIS data. The aim is to include everyone who is experiencing sheltered homelessness in the community on the night of the count.
Core Standard 7
Transitional housing is a Core Location and is included in the enumeration.
For the PiT enumeration, transitional housing is defined as programs that are meant to be a step between homelessness and permanent housing. Transitional housing with stays guaranteed for longer than a year or where residents have security of tenure and pay a portion of the rent should not normally be included. This category can include people in transitional beds located within other services. These should be included only if the residents would otherwise be homeless.
Core Standard 8
The PiT enumeration lead is responsible for the quality of data collected.
Diligence must be exercised to ensure that each person is counted only once. This could be through maintaining a narrow time frame for the unsheltered count, carefully planning what teams cover which unsheltered areas, and administering screening questions whenever possible.
The lead is also responsible for ensuring that enumeration teams receive the proper training, including instruction on:
- PiT enumeration standards;
- screening procedures; and
- personal safety.
Core Standard 9
In Designated Communities, the PiT enumeration lead is required to submit an interim report (using a template provided) to the Government of Canada describing the local methodology by August 31 of the year of the PiT Count.
Core Standard 10
The results of the PiT core enumeration are reported to the Government of Canada within two months of completing the enumeration. Additional optional data (e.g., from health or correctional systems) may be submitted within 3 months.
Core Standard 11
The results of the PiT enumeration are reviewed with PiT Count partners to support the interpretation and communication of the results.
At a community level, results are summarized and shared in a public report. Include local contextual data and information to help explain changes in the enumeration between years. Efforts should be made to communicate these findings to those who work in the sector and those experiencing homelessness.
Results will be summarized by HICC and shared in a public report.
Recommended Standards
Recommended Standard 1
Stakeholders whose work is relevant to homelessness are consulted to develop the local community PiT enumeration approach (e.g., define unsheltered areas to cover, determine who will carry out the unsheltered enumeration, decide whether to include observed homelessness, etc.). Stakeholders may include Community Advisory Boards (CABs); Indigenous organizations and communities; local homelessness outreach teams; municipalities; shelters and other homeless-sector service providers; people with lived experience of homelessness; local police and emergency services; and transit authorities.
The local methodology is approved by the CE and Indigenous Homelessness CE, where applicable.
Recommended Standard 2
Where possible, data from local public systems is included in your enumeration, especially if you have included this data in past PiT counts. This can include individuals with no fixed address in correctional facilities, juvenile detention centres, hospitals, and detox centres. This should only include those whose release is imminent, and who do not have a discharge plan that includes housing. This number is not included in the core enumeration.
Recommended Standard 3
Where the municipality or province/territory has a requirement to enumerate homelessness, the CE works with them to ensure that the enumeration meets local requirements. Additionally, the CE should ensure that the municipality and/or province/territory has access to all necessary data for their reporting requirement, where applicable. Even where data sharing is not necessary for reporting, sharing the results with partners and funders can help to raise awareness of the current state of homelessness in the community.
Recommended Standard 4
Communities compare results to other homelessness data sources such as data from the Homelessness Indicator Project (HIP) to validate each source and identify gaps. Several differences in methodology could explain discrepancies between datasets, such as differing time frames, inclusion criteria, and consent processes.
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