Post updated at 11:24 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 13:
Unofficial numbers released Thursday showed that more people experiencing homelessness in Douglas County were seeking shelter on the day of an annual count than last year, and fewer were unsheltered.
The point-in-time count is a count of people experiencing homelessness in a single day each January. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates that each continuum of care nationwide conduct the count at least every other year.
Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the city’s homeless solutions division, said the latest numbers are not yet official — complete stats will ultimately be released later this year — but they’re “really, really good news.”
“The fact that more individuals are choosing shelter is significant,” Bosch-Hastings said in a city news release Thursday. “It shows that we are building trust and that our shelters are being seen as a gateway to stability. Shelter provides safety, support, and direct connections to housing resources, and this increase demonstrates that people are engaging with the system to move toward long-term solutions.”
Methodologies for data collection can vary from year to year based on many factors, and the data collection process is imperfect. Comparing just one year to the next doesn’t provide a complete picture of what is already incomplete data — not everyone who volunteers encounter are comfortable providing the personal information the PIT count surveys seek.
However, the City of Lawrence on Thursday released numbers from the 2025 count, held Jan. 22 and 23. People experiencing sheltered homelessness in Douglas County rose to 184 from 136, and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness dropped to 43 from 142.
Those numbers are only part of the PIT count total, which will come later. These counts only include the 227 people who were unsheltered or staying in emergency shelter at the Lawrence Community Shelter or one of the city’s overflow shelter sites; verified numbers will also include people living in transitional housing.
The 2024 count included 414 people — 344 adults and 70 children. That’s up six from the county’s previous record, set in 2020. Of that total, 17% were employed; 142 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, 137 were in transitional housing and 136 were in emergency shelter. Read more about last year’s numbers at this link.
In addition, weather conditions can affect how many people choose to seek shelter. During the 2024 count, the average temperatures were 37.5° and 39°, with lows of 34° and 36°; during the 2025 count, the temperatures averaged 27° and 15.5°, with lows of 19° and 2°, according to National Weather Service data.
The city attributed the changing numbers to the Homeless Response Team forming relationships with people and helping connect them to resources to become sheltered. “Additionally, the City has made significant investment to create additional spaces to shelter people in need,” according to the release.
“These aren’t just numbers — they’re a reflection of the real, on-the-ground work happening every day. Our Homeless Response Team, alongside our dedicated community partners, have been meeting people where they are, building trust, and creating tailored compassionate solutions that fit each person’s journey,” Bosch-Hastings said in the release. “The data also reflects the success of our diversion policy, which enables us to return people to their communities of origin or other places where they have resources and a warm handoff can be made. We’ve made great strides, but we’re not stopping here. We’ll continue to build on this momentum, knowing that together, we’re making progress toward ending chronic homelessness.”
Overall from 2015 to 2024 (with the exception of 2021, when no count was conducted because of the COVID-19 pandemic), Douglas County counted an average of 331 and median of 319 people experiencing homelessness.
The city’s Homeless Response Team, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, Lawrence Community Shelter, and other community volunteers facilitated the count for the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, which is responsible for providing the information to HUD, according to an earlier city news release.
Complete statewide data will likely not be released for a few months. Last year, it was released in August.
Here’s the complete survey volunteers aimed to administer to each person they encountered this year:
2025-PIT-SurveyIf our local journalism matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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