The Homelessness Most Communities Never See
Each January, communities across the country participate in Point-in-Time (PIT) Counts—an effort to capture a snapshot of homelessness on a single night. These counts matter: they influence funding formulas, regional allocations, and long-term planning decisions that directly impact a community’s ability to respond to homelessness.
And yet, the PIT Count also reminds us of a deeper truth: much of homelessness remains invisible in everyday life.
As I wrote in my reflection “When We Don’t See Homelessness” on the North Bend City / Coos-Curry Housing Authorities blog, most people in the general public will never fully understand homelessness—not because they don’t care, but because they rarely see the full extent of it.
Read the original post here: https://ccnbchas.org/when-we-dont-see-homelessness/
Weather, safety concerns, family dynamics, and system design all shape who is visible and who remains hidden. Conducting counts in winter often pushes people out of sight—but more fundamentally, the systems we use to measure homelessness only scratch the surface.
Homelessness Is Not One Image
The public discourse often centers on what is most visible: encampments, crisis behavior, or crisis responses. But homelessness looks very different on the ground:
Seniors sleeping in vehicles who are counted only if they are seen.
Families with children avoiding shelters that risk separating them, choosing instead to remain hidden—rotating between couches, cars, and temporary arrangements, and never appearing in the chronic homelessness the public tends to recognize.
Survivors of domestic violence quietly working toward stability.
Individuals with serious medical or mental health needs who were never born into families with stability.
These patterns highlight why traditional counts don’t reflect the full picture. Communities should interpret PIT data thoughtfully, recognizing that it often underrepresents families, hidden homelessness, and people who are precariously housed.
Why This Matters for Solutions
When communities design responses based primarily on what is visible, they risk overlooking key components of a full homelessness system. That limited view can result in:
Underinvestment in prevention, family stability, and early intervention.
Misalignment between services offered and actual needs on the ground.
Misplaced public pressure toward enforcement rather than housing solutions.
If homelessness is going to become rare, then measurement must be paired with narrative. Data alone doesn’t change hearts or build collective will; stories do.
Narrative Shapes Public Understanding
History shows that media and cultural storytelling shape public understanding long before policy catches up. For example, media in the 1940s intentionally challenged the Ku Klux Klan’s cultural influence by exposing its mythology and moral emptiness—shifting norms and reducing public acceptance over time.
Homelessness requires a similar shift.
We need narratives that help communities see beyond stereotypes and recognize homelessness as a human condition shaped by systemic barriers and life circumstances, not as a personal failing. Stories that build empathy can strengthen public support for comprehensive solutions—housing, prevention, and economic opportunity.
A Dual Approach: Systems + Story
Systems alignment—coordinated entry, housing development, outreach, services, and data—remains essential. But systems alone do not change hearts.
To truly advance solutions that work:
Invest in narrative change that deepens public understanding.
Prioritize measurement tools that capture the full scope of housing instability.
Center experiences of people with lived experience in planning and solutions.
Pair data with dignity in all community communication.
If homelessness is ever going to become rare, then community—and the stories we tell about one another—must be part of the solution.
By Matthew Vorderstrasse, M.A.; PHM.