Overview
- Hundreds of volunteers canvassed Chicago, Metro Detroit, Los Angeles–area jurisdictions and Western New York this week to survey people staying outdoors, in shelters and in vehicles on a single January night.
- Teams distributed hand warmers, hats, gloves, hygiene kits, food and bus passes, and offered rides to shelters as temperatures plunged to the season’s coldest levels in places like Chicago.
- Local agencies will analyze and release results later this year, with Pasadena planning to present its count to the city council by June.
- Following a dispute over 2025 totals, San Diego’s Regional Taskforce on Homelessness and El Cajon refined mapping and procedures to prevent double-counting, and the city is conducting its own supplemental tallies.
- Service providers and advocates warn the method misses many people—particularly families who are doubled up or in cars—and note some outreach capacity has shrunk due to recent funding changes.