What one night’s homelessness count captures

Clark County’s January 29, 2026 homelessness count involved more than 526 staff and volunteers and roughly 2,021 completed surveys, according to its March 3 recap. Those surveys described fieldwork, rather than a population estimate. The county then expected results by May. ^[1]

By October 29, the Southern Nevada Homelessness Continuum of Care’s reports page linked a 2026 results sheet estimating 8,859 people experiencing homelessness in Clark County on January 29: 5,017 unsheltered and 3,842 sheltered. The sheet labels its figures preliminary and subject to change, and says no PIT count was conducted in 2025. ^{[6] [7]}

The national framework explains the timing. HUD’s November 2023 notice described counts on one night in late January, with at least biennial coverage required under the Continuum of Care rule. It also described incentives for annual counting. A minimum frequency and a community’s next scheduled count need not be the same thing. ^[2]

HUD’s methodology guide makes the statistical boundary explicit: a January count is not intended to represent everyone unsheltered across a year. It requires avoiding duplicate counts. Missed people can pull a total downward, while counting someone twice can push it upward; coverage and deduplication both matter when interpreting a result. ^[3]

Local training set out different jobs for lead counters and lookouts, refresher safety instruction and practice using the Survey123 mobile app. Those steps aimed to make observations comparable; they do not show how every volunteer performed. The portal’s listed sessions were in January 2026. ^[4]

The coalition’s portal describes year-round outreach as information beyond the single-night snapshot and lists January 28, 2027 for its next count. That is a future plan, distinct from the 2026 fieldwork. Those time windows answer different questions about need. ^[5]