We’re glad you’re here! Whether you’re joining us for the first time or returning for another year of collaboration, thank you for choosing our team to support your community’s Point in Time (PIT) Count. Our mission is to make your count process smoother, smarter, and more effective giving you the tools you need to gather reliable data and strengthen local planning efforts.
Below, you’ll find an overview of the optional features you may have signed on for along with additional support on how to use each of them.
This short video explains the process for updating the surveys to meet local needs while maintaining compliance with the HUD data collection and reporting requirements. While administrators can edit labels on surveys and questions by following this guidance, any new questions must be created by Simtech staff. Our survey templates and the instructions on how to modify these can be found here.
Having enough surveyors to canvas your community is critical to the success of any count. The Surveyor Registration Portal provides an easy way for people to get key details of the count, register, choose the area that they would like to count in*, and provide more information about themselves. This information is useful for count administrators to create well balanced count teams. Once registering, a welcome email is sent out that can be tailored to meet local needs. The link for your portal can be accessed and revised under Settings | Volunteer Registration. To learn more about customizing your Surveyor Registration Portal, click here.
*This requires the Region and Count Team Management feature.
Organizing a PIT count shouldn’t be complicated. You’ll have access to robust tools for defining regions, assigning regional leads, creating teams, and assigning count team leads. In essence, these tools enable Count Administrators to create an organization chart, with roles and responsibilities assigned for each person. This structure helps ensure every part of your community is represented and that your teams are equipped and coordinated from planning through deployment. For video tutorials and written instructions on how to use these features, click here.
The Print-Friendly Maps provide simplified, region-specific layouts that volunteers can carry during the PIT Count. These maps highlight assigned zones, key landmarks, and boundaries to ensure complete coverage and help teams stay oriented in the field. Whether used as a backup or a primary resource, print-ready maps give your volunteers confidence and clarity as they canvass their areas. To request your print friendly maps, please submit a help desk ticket.
This feature supports the creation of count estimates by using data gathered during the Unsheltered Survey in which participants are asked both their current living situation and how many people they are residing with. This information, along with a tally of all Vehicles and Makeshift Shelters (VMS) in an area, can be used to create count estimates for all VMS that were observed that appear to be containing occupants that cannot be engaged. More details on how these estimates are derived can be found here.
In addition to your primary PIT Count, our team can set up separate, dedicated count activities to support specialized efforts—such as youth counts or other targeted initiatives. Each activity comes with its own survey, regions, and access settings, allowing you to collect distinct data without disrupting your main PIT workflow. Whether you’re expanding your data collection or addressing unique local needs, we’re here to help you build and manage additional counts with ease. To request an additional count, please submit a help desk ticket.
The first step of using this feature is to identify the areas that are likely to contain people experiencing homelessness. These “high probability” areas can be defined using any GPS-enabled data sets. These can include survey locations from last year’s PIT count, street outreach data collected throughout the year using Simtech’s Show The Way outreach app, other tech that is capable of capturing GPS coordinates, or by utilizing the “Known Locations Survey” available for free through Counting Us. More information on this estimation approach can be found here and an outline of the steps to implement it can be found here. While Count Admins are able to run this process on their own, we encourage sending an email to PIT@SimtechSolutions.com once the high-probability areas have been defined so we can review your work and support you through the rest of the process.
Shelter-Based Surveys allow your team to collect detailed, HUD-aligned data directly from emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, and safe havens. If your community opted for custom questions, the Unsheltered Survey can be used as a template for the Shelter Survey. To learn how to manage the organizations, projects, and locations that will have access to this survey, click here.
The Known Location Survey is a tool that can be used during the "Pre-Count" phase to identify the areas that people experiencing homelessness tend to be found. This information is a critical planning tool that can be used to target areas for canvassing, set quotas for the Surveyor Registration, and determine how many care kits, gift cards, or other incentives might be needed. More details on this feature can be found here.
This feature is only turned on by request and will hopefully not be needed by your community. If disaster does happen to strike, please send a message to the help desk, and a member of our team will work with you to get a separate count activity created, a customized survey assigned, and provide guidance on how to use both the Counting Us app and the Command Center to create a by-name list of all people who have become homeless as a result of the disaster. While it is not our core mission to respond to natural disasters, our GPS-enabled surveying technology with offline capabilities, has served a key role in recovery efforts after hurricanes, wildfires, and floods have devastated communities.
Each community has the option to enable the surveys be made available in both English and Spanish. While we have worked with community partners to provide these translations, Count Administrators can revise them, as well as include translations for any Custom Questions that are added, by following these instructions.
Whether you’re returning with new goals or joining us for the first time, we’re excited to partner with you. Explore your tools, reach out with any questions, and let’s make this year’s Point in Time Count your smoothest and strongest yet.
If you need help getting started, or have any questions during the count process, please submit a help desk ticket and a member of our team will assist you.