The Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness recently released its 2013 Homeless Point in Time Report. The annual “Point in Time Count” (PIT) is a statewide census, conducted on a single winter night, of homeless people staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs or living in places unintended for human habitation. Connecticut’s PIT took place on January 29, 2013. Across the country, similar counts are conducted annually or biennially. The report highlights the following statistics from the 2013 count:
- 4,506 individuals were homeless,
- 2,321 single adults slept in shelters and transitional housing,
- 826 single adults slept on the streets,
- 12 unaccompanied children under age 18 slept in emergency shelters,
- 438 families (comprising 508 adults and 746 children) slept in emergency shelters or in transitional housing,
- 37 families (37 adults and 56 children) slept on the streets,
- 39% of youth aged 18 to 24 in shelters or transitional programs were with children of their own,
- 43% of the 863 unsheltered adults are chronically homeless,
- between 2011 and 2013, the unsheltered population increased by one third (and by 82% since 2009),
- half the counted homeless veterans are chronically homeless,
- 18% of counted people experienced domestic violence, and
- nearly 1 in 10 homeless individuals are youths aged 18 to 24.
