The Point-in-Time Count of Homelessness (PIT) provides a snapshot of people who are experiencing homelessness on a given night in a community. 

 

On a single night in January 2023, 624 people experiencing homelessness were identified in Madison/Dane County on the night of the 2023 January PIT.   
 

• 87% (545 persons) were identified as using emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while the remaining 13% (79 persons) were located in unsheltered settings. 

• 36% (224 persons) were in households with children, comprising 60 families. 

• 64% (398 persons) were in households without children (singles). 

• 2 unaccompanied youth under age 18 were identified. 

• 5% (33 persons) were young adults aged 18-24, out of which 10 were parenting youth. 

• 37% (230 persons) were considered chronically homeless*.

• 7% (43 persons) were in households of veterans. 

• 13% (79 persons) stayed in unsheltered locations, including streets, vehicles, tents, or other places not suitable for human habitation, as well as Occupy Madison temporary tiny homes and Dairy Drive sheltered campgrounds. 

• Notably, there was a significant overrepresentation among people of color within the homeless population. People of color accounted for 50% of all people identified as experiencing homelessness despite constituting only 16% of the Dane County population.

 

[1] Chronically Homeless Individual refers to an individual with a disability who has been continuously homeless for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time homeless in those occasions is at least 12 months. Chronically Homeless People in Families refers to people in families in which the head of household has a disability and has either been continuously homeless for one year or more or has experienced at least four episodes of homelessness in the last three years where the combined length of time homeless in those occasions is at least 12 months.