2025 Point-in-Time Count: Sheltered Count and Overall Totals

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Sheltered Homeless Census

The Sheltered Homeless Census offers a detailed look at the number of individuals staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing, or safe havens during the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. This data is captured from both the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and manually from providers who do not participate in the local HMIS. To ensure full coverage, the Continuum of Care (CoC) works to exhaustively identify all programs that meet HUD criteria for inclusion. For a program to be included in the count, it must primarily serve people experiencing homelessness, verify homeless status as part of its program eligibility criteria, and the majority of the people served by the program must be people experiencing homelessness.  Data from included programs are synthesized and data is reviewed to ensure a deduplicated final count.

2025 Sheltered Census Data

Thirty-three publicly and privately operated emergency shelter, transitional housing, and safe haven programs from 15 homeless services agencies participated in the 2025 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Point-in-Time Count Sheltered Homeless Census. Fifteen programs were classified as emergency shelter, 17 were transitional housing, and 1 was a safe haven.

On January 22, 2025, 1320 households totaling 1,657 persons were experiencing sheltered homelessness in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. This is 60 more households than last year but 54 fewer people than in 2024. Of the 1,657 people experiencing sheltered homelessness, 1198 people were utilizing emergency shelter, 439 were utilizing transitional housing, and 20 were using a safe haven. The decrease in the number of people in emergency shelter is due to a decrease in the number of available shelter beds. Of the 1,320 households identified in the Sheltered Homeless Census, 148 were households with minor children totaling 641 people, 308 of which were children under the age of 18. This is a 30% reduction in households with minor children compared to 2024. The decrease in the number of families with minor children is due to a lack of available shelter beds for families with minor children. We currently have one shelter that serves families with minor children and that shelter also serves single women. There have been more single women gaining access to this shelter which is in part why we see a reduction the number of families with minor children in the PIT data. Three households were child only households who were served at a local shelter and transitional housing program who serve minor children. 1,169 households were adult only households totaling 1,174 people, an 11% increase compared to 2024.

Children under the age of 18 made up 19% of the sheltered count. 27% of people were age 55 or older. Seventy-seven percent identified as Black, African American, or African and 3% identified as Hispanic/Latina(e)(o). Three percent were unaccompanied youth ages 18-24; 8% were veterans; and 21% met the criteria for chronic homelessness.

Trends in Sheltered Homelessness

The 2025 Sheltered Homeless Census decreased by 5% or 83 people with 1,711 people in 2024 and 1,657 people in 2025. There was a slight decrease in people utilizing emergency shelter (1,198 vs. 1243). There was a 11% increase in the number of people utilizing the safe haven program (18 vs. 20) which means the one community safe haven program was at 100% capacity. There was also a slight decrease in transitional housing utilization (439 vs. 450).

2025 Overall PIT Count Data

Coupled with the Unsheltered Census, 2,101 total persons in 1,741 households were identified as experiencing homelessness on the night of the PIT count. When examining overall count data, 76% of people were in single adult households, 36% of people were between the ages of 25 and 54, and 73% identified as Black, African American, or African. Twenty-seven percent of people met the criteria for chronic homelessness and 5% were veterans. Twenty-three percent self-reported a serious mental illness and 6% reported being survivors of domestic violence.

Trends in Overall PIT Count Data

When compared to 2024 Overall PIT Count data, in 2025 there was a <1% or 6 person increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness on the night of the PIT (2,101 vs. 2095). It is important to note that while there was only a slight increase in the overall count, there was a 16% (or 60 people) increase in unsheltered homelessness. In 2025, there was a slight decrease in the number of veterans experiencing homelessness (5% vs. 6%), and a 6% increase in the number of people who met the criteria for chronic homelessness (27% vs. 21%). There was also a slight decrease in the percentage of persons who reported a serious mental illness (22% vs. 25%) and a decrease in the number of persons who reported being survivors of domestic violence (5% vs. 6%). The reductions observed may be partially attributed to targeted investments and support directed toward specific groups such as veterans and survivors of domestic violence. Reductions such as these illustrate the impact of targeted interventions on decreasing the number of people experiencing homelessness in Mecklenburg County. Likewise, the increase in the number of people who meet the criteria for chronic homelessness suggests additional targeted resources such as permanent supportive housing and permanent subsidies are needed to decrease the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness in Mecklenburg County. However, while additional target resources are needed to support people in exiting chronic homelessness, increased case management resources, short-term subsidies, and income-based and affordable housing are essential to prevent people from aging into chronic homelessness due to homeless episodes that exceed one year.

One Number

As illustrated by these data, while the annual PIT Count highlights trends in homelessness and helps guide policy and funding priorities, it only provides a limited, one-night snapshot that does not capture the entirety of homelessness in Mecklenburg County. To address these limitations, Charlotte-Mecklenburg relies on additional data sources to better understand the local scope of homelessness. The One Number, which is updated monthly, offers a more current view of homelessness by tracking system inflows, outflows, and the overall population experiencing homelessness in real time. For comparison, in January 2025, the One Number was 2,984 people, over 900 more than were counted on the night of the PIT. The One Number at minimum does not include the 116 people who were counted on the night of the PIT but had not otherwise touched the HMIS system. This illustrates that while the PIT and One Number data are essential metrics for system planning and resource allocation, both numbers undercount the number of people experiences homelessness in Mecklenburg County.