Washoe County released the results of the January 29, 2026, Point in Time (PIT) count, showing similar total count numbers to previous years. The PIT Count is an annual count of the number of people experiencing homelessness in Washoe County and is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The count is conducted according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development guidance and begins at 4 a.m. on the day of the count. A count of people who are in emergency shelters or transitional housing is required annually, while an unsheltered count is required every other year. Normally conducted in the last 10 days of January, this year’s count was conducted statewide on January 29.
The 2026 PIT Count benefitted from the support of numerous regional partners, with particularly significant contributions from the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office HOPE Team. Their involvement was essential to implementing our expanded coverage approach and accessing harder to reach areas within the county. Thanks to their dedication, this year’s effort resulted in our most comprehensive unsheltered count to date.
“The PIT count wouldn’t be possible without all the street outreach providers, case managers and law enforcement agencies that showed up at 4 a.m. on a cold winter morning” Catrina Peters, the Northern Nevada Continuum of Care Coordinator, said. “Thank you to all who supported the effort!”
The PIT Count also includes a companion report, the Housing Inventory Chart, that is submitted to HUD. This report includes information on bed inventory and bed utilization. For the 2026 data, high utilization of emergency shelter beds was seen at 89 percent utilization overall, higher than Transitional Housing utilization which was 72 percent.
Regionally, there has been an increase in the number of people being housed, but a greater increase in the number of people falling into homelessness. Limited affordable housing for low and extremely low-income populations continues to make exits to permanent housing challenging for both sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness.
“The Point in Time Count is a valuable tool to help us understand sheltered and unsheltered homelessness year-over-year,” Washoe County Commission Chair Clara Andriola said. “While the number of unsheltered individuals counted on this specific day of the year has been cut in half since the opening of the Cares Campus, some of the toughest work lies ahead. Many of those the community serves have complex needs requiring complex solutions. It is notable that our region has responded to the crisis we were in after COVID and we have built shelter, expanded housing, and diverted individuals from homelessness into homes, which is in alignment with our commitment to the Sequential Intercept Model.”
View the 2026 PIT Results Summary here.
