Profile of homelessness

It's important to monitor trends in homelessness to measure what type and level of housing and supportive services are needed, where they're needed and who needs them.

There are several data collection efforts the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness agencies participate in, all for different reasons that all collect different types of information. A few central themes run through all data collection efforts:

Confidentiality is most important, and identifying individual information is never shared unless each homeless individual provides informed consent in writing;
Data is collected in an effort to continually improve programs and services and is never tracked arbitrarily;
Counting the number of people who are homeless, or fully understanding the reason why they became homeless, or the true scope of all their needs is impossible. What the data below gives are estimates based on those people who encountered a community partner and provided some level of information.

Point in Time survey

One day each year the state's network of homeless shelter and service providers, and scores of community partners, conduct a Point in Time count of everyone who is homeless.

The most recent count was on January 30, 2008. Results from the Point In Time can be found at: www.nerhmis.org/vt/pitfiles.asp. There is a statewide summary, county reports, and Agency of Human Services District reports available. The form used to collect this data and the Point In Time publication are also available.

Below is a statewide summary from the 2007 count, as well as each county report, as available. Franklin and Grand Isle counties are combined into one report, as are Essex and Orleans counties.

2007 Point in Time summaries

Vermont (2.9 MB; PDF)
Addison Co. (3 MB; PDF)
Bennington Co. (3 MB; PDF)
Caledonia and Essex counties (2.9 MB; PDF)
Chittenden Co. (3 MB; PDF)
Franklin and Grand Isle counties (3 MB; PDF)
Lamoille Co. (2.9 MB; PDF)
Orange Co. (2.7 MB; PDF)
Orleans Co. (2.4 MB; PDF)
Rutland Co. (3 MB; PDF)
Washington Co. (2.6 MB; PDF)
Windham Co. (3.1 MB; PDF)
Windsor Co. (2.9 MB; PDF)

Here is the form used by providers to collect this information.

For more information, contact Kim Woolaver. Additional information on what, who, why and where the Point in Time was conducted is posted online.

Other homelessness data

There is more data on people who are homeless, including a separate one-night count in December of each year by just the 22 shelter and service providers who get federal Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funding.

Also, ESG providers track the number of people who they serve over the course of a year.

For more information on these data, contact Angus Chaney.