Ice-covered snow crunched under April Redman鈥檚 feet as she carefully made her way down a narrow wooded trail.
It was after midnight and below freezing on a recent Missouri morning. Her phone鈥檚 flashlight was the only light in the forested area behind a Dollar General on the outskirts of Jefferson City.
鈥淗ello?鈥� Redman called out as other volunteers farther up the trail echoed her. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just here to help.鈥�
Redman continued up the path. She was bundled in several layers of clothing, and two beanies covered her bright red hair. She was cautious but confident. It wasn鈥檛 her first time searching for people in pitch-black woods, she said.
In fact, it was her seventh time volunteering as part of the . HUD requires designated organizations throughout the country to perform the count once a year on a single night in January to tally the number of people without safe, stable housing. The methods and time frames of the count vary in different locations.
Ahead on the path, Redman's flashlight revealed a small mound of empty beer cans, snow-covered cushions that once served as a makeshift bed and a lawn chair knocked onto its side 鈥� all signs of an outdoor encampment.
But whoever lived there was gone.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to not check a stop and miss somebody by accident,鈥� Redman said. 鈥淲e have to check all these places because we know homeless people have been there.鈥�
The annual point-in-time count is a necessary search experts and even HUD officials say most likely underestimates the full number of homeless people living in the U.S. And in the Midwest and other parts of the country with large swaths of rural land, the problem can be exacerbated by people who are hard to find.
Last year鈥檚 national count , roughly 18% higher than the 2023 count. It鈥檚 the largest number recorded by the point-in-time count since its inception in 2007.
In Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, the 2024 count tallied just over 15,000 homeless people.
The data offers a snapshot to HUD that helps identify where financial assistance and resources need to go throughout the country and any trends developing within the homeless population.
Every person counted serves as evidence the area needs more aid, Redman said.
Redman leads a Fulton-based nonprofit, Callaway Cares, that helps community members struggling with housing. She鈥檚 leading the count as a regional coordinator for the Missouri Balance of State Continuum of Care. Across the state, other regions and cities perform the count in late January as well.
In Missouri, the 鈥渟treet count鈥� starts at 5 p.m. and goes to 7 a.m., and a count takes place a week later of people in shelters, at soup kitchens and at other places of service.
Counters and guidance needed
Callaway and Cole counties stretch across roughly 1,250 square miles, a challenge for Redman and her co-worker and fellow counter Christina Willard. They expected several teams of volunteers to show up for the count. But only two others ended up participating 鈥� leaving two teams to cover dozens of leads over a sprawling rural area.
鈥淚t鈥檚 so much area to cover and so many questions to ask,鈥� Redman said. 鈥淵ou can ask all the questions you want before the night of this, and we can jot down all the places that we normally go, but that doesn鈥檛 mean we鈥檙e going to see people tonight.鈥�
That鈥檚 a problem for getting an accurate count.
Advocates for homeless people have criticized the accuracy of the point-in-time count for decades. Last year, ABC News reported in different areas.
The report found the number of counters varied drastically in regions with similar populations, while counters used surveys in some places and tallies in others.
A 2020 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office says HUD鈥檚 method of counting on a single night limits the number of people that can be tallied, meaning there's most likely an undercount.
What鈥檚 more, the report says counting methods vary throughout the country due to HUD鈥檚 lack of guidance to local volunteers.
HUD officials told the office a larger initiative to develop formal guidance is underway, pending budgetary resources. However, during President Donald Trump's first term, he moved to slash HUD鈥檚 budget, a
鈥淲e are terrified going into this new administration,鈥� said Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson with the National Homeless Law Center. 鈥淗e鈥檚 talked about passing a 鈥� but we also know that his policies are actually going to make housing more expensive and push more people into homelessness.鈥�
A by the National Homelessness Law Center pointed to similar issues with HUD鈥檚 count 鈥� noting the current method undercounts unsheltered people the night of the count and doesn鈥檛 include all types of homelessness. For instance, a person without permanent housing who stays with a friend would miss the point-in-time count.
Anti-homeless legislation
Rabinowitz said HUD hasn鈥檛 altered its techniques greatly since the organization鈥檚 2017 report. Meanwhile, the U.S. homeless population has grown by more than 220,000 people since the report was published.
鈥淭he central question behind the point in time should be 鈥榳hat do we need to do next year so that fewer people are experiencing homelessness when we go out and count them?鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e just counting people to get data, that鈥檚 not sufficient.鈥�
What鈥檚 more, Rabinowitz said, a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said local governments can enforce camping restrictions against homeless people without violating the Eighth Amendment made it more difficult for the count to be effective by forcing people to stay out of sight where they won鈥檛 be ticketed by law enforcement.
The court鈥檚 decision led to a surge in anti-homelessness legislation across the country, he said.
鈥淚n the past six months or so we have seen over 140 cities pass anti-camping laws that don鈥檛 fund housing, that don鈥檛 fund shelter, that don鈥檛 fund services,鈥� Rabinowitz said. 鈥淎ll they do is punish people while they鈥檙e experiencing homelessness and kick people while they鈥檙e down.鈥�
In the Midwest, major cities like Wichita and Des Moines passed anti-camping laws last year, and lawmakers have proposed statewide measures in Nebraska. In 2023, Missouri鈥檚 Supreme Court
鈥淭hey need to stop passing laws that punish people for being homeless and instead recognize that homelessness is caused by the lack of housing, not by the lack of laws that cities have at their disposal to punish folks for sleeping outside,鈥� Rabinowitz said.
Turning to data solutions
Results from HUD鈥檚 point-in-time counts are released a year after the initial count 鈥� meaning the data is from the previous year.
In some cities, officials seek more current data to better serve and track their homeless populations.
Adam Ruege is director of strategy and evaluation with Community Solutions, a nonprofit organization that uses data to reduce homelessness through a methodology known as Built for Zero. The organization works with cities to use more up-to-date data to respond to homelessness.
Community Solutions partners with more than 100 cities across the country free of charge, including Kansas City, St. Louis, Wichita and Columbia, Missouri.
The method involves accounting for people struggling with housing in real time to attempt to match them with housing before they become homeless again.
Cities aim to do that by maintaining a 鈥渂y-name鈥� list that keeps detailed information on consenting individuals in its homeless population in an effort to match them with housing solutions.
St. Louis partnered with the organization in 2020. Since then, it has built a network tracking homeless individuals, chronically homeless individuals and veterans struggling with housing by name.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e seeing in communities Built for Zero is that they鈥檙e working towards these goals,鈥� Ruege said. 鈥淭hey have the data that informs them to make rapid changes as they go along, to have a better understanding of the challenge at hand.鈥�
Hard to prove they exist
Back in rural Missouri, Redman and Willard鈥檚 overnight search took them through several wooded areas, up and down treacherous ice-covered roads, into an abandoned hotel and even through a Taco Bell drive-thru.
They went without hesitation, trudging through dark woods and abandoned structures in hopes of counting people and offering what aid they could.
At one point in the night they gave two heavy blankets and a sleeping bag to a man surveyed at a McDonald鈥檚.
鈥淗e will quite literally be sleeping in a creek bed tonight,鈥� Willard said.
Redman said many rural areas lose out on aid because there aren鈥檛 enough eyes to count a growing population of people who don鈥檛 have stable housing.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e not out here doing this sort of thing, then no one knows there鈥檚 a homeless population,鈥� Redman said. 鈥淲ithout the data, there鈥檚 nothing to go by for funding. Why would anyone allocate funding to an area that has no homeless people? They would send it to bigger bulks to places like St. Louis and Kansas City rather than the rural areas.鈥�
Redman, Willard and fellow volunteer Ashley Blankenship finished around 3 a.m. They found 14 people during the overnight count.
Other people without housing were counted in the following days in shelters and other temporary refuges. Redman said more than 100 other individuals who said they were unhoused the night of the count were added to the unofficial total.
That additional count after the overnight one is a 鈥渟aving grace鈥� of the point-in-time process, Redman said. She said without it, they wouldn鈥檛 count nearly as many people.
And while HUD鈥檚 method isn鈥檛 perfect, Redman said, it鈥檚 more important than ever 鈥� especially as the cost of living continues to rise and housing becomes less affordable. She said every person counted is another signal to the government that the region needs more support.
鈥淲e talk about it being the hidden population 鈥� we鈥檙e talking about people who don鈥檛 get counted on the census,鈥� Redman said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 harder to prove their existence because they鈥檙e more hidden. We have people living in the woods in some instances 鈥� and you would have no idea that they are there.鈥�
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METHODS
To tell this story, reporter Kavahn Mansouri embedded with volunteers in Callaway and Cole counties who were taking part in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development鈥檚 annual point-in-time overnight street count to document the process and challenges volunteers go through while tallying and surveying the country鈥檚 homeless population. He also spoke with an employee of the National Homelessness Law Center about the count and legislation he says makes life more difficult for homeless people.
REFERENCES
(U.S. Government Accountability Office | July 14, 2020)
(National Homelessness Law Center | Dec. 6, 2017)
(ABC News | Feb. 3, 2024)
(Missouri Independent | Dec. 19, 2023)
(NPR | Jan. 16, 2025)
(NPR | Dec. 27, 2024)
TYPE OF ARTICLE
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
