Once a year, on a single night in January, volunteers and trained professionals across Indiana go out and count because lives depend on it. This is known as the Point-in-Time (or PIT) Count, which counts unhoused and homeless people statewide. This count is crucial to ensuring there is enough funding for support services to help these individuals out of homelessness, and it is a HUD requirement. Shelters count how many are in their beds, teams walk through known encampments, and staff comb parking lots for those living in their cars.
What the Last Count Found in Indiana
In Indiana’s Balance of State Continuum of Care, the 2025 count found 4,860 people experiencing homelessness on one night in Indiana (excluding Indianapolis and Marion County, which counts separately). In 2024, that number was 4,398 individuals: that’s a 10.5% increase in a single year.
While these numbers are significant, the PIT Count still faces major challenges in producing a fully accurate count. To begin with, the count is held each January. In northern Indiana, this often means freezing or below-freezing temperatures and snow. Inclement weather keeps people indoors to stay warm. The count is also conducted at night when most are sleeping or hunkered down for the evening. This system also does not consider hidden homelessness (those on a friend’s couch, family members doubled up, or one living in their car but moving).
Nest Community Shelter recently published a blog post about the rural/urban divide in Indiana and how it impacted not only unhoused populations in these communities but also local responses. The article cited that rural areas account for only about 7% of counted unhoused statewide, a figure that almost everyone working in the field believes is vastly undercounted because of hidden homelessness. The article also said that between 2023 and 2025, rural homelessness in Indiana grew by 16.6%, compared with 9.4% in urban areas. The fastest growth in the state is one of the hardest to count, yet numbers still rise dramatically.
What Unhoused Looks Like in La Porte County
La Porte County mirrors Indiana, with the northern half more urban and the southern half more rural. Support services for the unhoused tend to cluster in urban areas, providing shelter beds, case managers, and outreach services. In more rural areas, these services are not only fewer but also harder to reach, with limited public transit. This geography shapes what help works best. In cities, it’s capacity (think shelters), and in rural areas it tends to be prevention of homelessness (rent assistance).
Why This Year’s Numbers Carry More Weight Than Usual
First, Indiana Law SEA285, also known as the camping law, took effect on July 1st of this year. We’ve talked about it in two posts in the series, and you can read more about it in the other posts in this series section below. This new law includes a defense that hinges on the availability of shelter or mental health beds within five miles. This piece turns local bed capacity into a legal question, and the PIT count is one of the few public sources of information about how much capacity a community has.
Second, federal funding for the unhoused is uncertain this year. HUD proposed moving about a third of the funding away from permanent housing; a court vacated that notice in August, and as of this post, it has not issued a replacement. Whatever comes next will be allocated using the PIT Count data, which is why an accurate count is vital.
How to Interpret the Point in Time Count Numbers
The PIT Count isn’t a scoreboard; these are lives, these are people represented in these numbers: neighbors, friends, family, and people who need help. Here are a few key things to keep in mind when interpreting these numbers:
Think of the reported number as the floor, not the actual number. So, when you see a count of 4,860 individuals, it should read “at least” because we know so many missed the count, despite the counters’ best efforts.
Watch the direction, not just the level. A 10.5% year-over-year rise says more than any single year does.
Ask yourself, who wasn’t counted. In a county like ours, with rural and urban areas, that question usually has more people behind it than the count itself.
Numbers can make the problem feel abstract at times, but it isn’t. Each number, as we said before, represents a person who, on any specific PIT Count night, is unhoused on a cold night in January.
Other Posts in this Series:
The Federal Retreat From Housing: What the Latest Funding Cuts Mean for People at Risk
Indiana Bill SEA285: What It Means Now That It’s in Effect
We Can’t Cite Our Way Out of Homelessness: Why Criminalization Fails
Sources
• Heading Home Indiana, New data gives insight to homelessness in Indiana (2025 PIT results) https://headinghomeindiana.org/news/new-data-gives-insight-to-homelessness-in-indiana/
• Nest Community Shelter, How Homelessness Looks Different Across Indiana (Aug. 7, 2026) https://nestcommunityshelter.org/how-homelessness-looks-different-across-indiana/
• Nest Community Shelter, The Vicious Cycle of Housing Insecurity: Motel Living https://nestcommunityshelter.org/the-vicious-cycle-of-housing-insecurity-a-recipe-for-hidden-homelessness-motel-living/
• IHCDA, Point-in-Time Count Basics (2025) https://www.in.gov/ihcda/files/PIT-Basics-2025.pdf
• Indiana Capital Chronicle, Public camping ban and other laws go into effect July 1 https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2026/06/25/public-camping-ban-national-guard-military-police-and-other-laws-go-into-effect-july-1/
• NACo, Court vacates FY 2026 Continuum of Care grant changes https://www.naco.org/news/court-vacates-fy-2026-continuum-care-grant-changes
