Trump administration will no longer track gender in national homelessness count

Locales across the country collect data on their homeless population every other January in what is known as a point-in-time count. Though the federally mandated count is usually an underestimate, it can be a useful tool for local policymakers.

“I think it’s worth doing,” said Marisa Zapata, director of the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative at Portland State University, which conducts the metro area count. “It helps contextualize what’s happening in different places. And it helps catch trends.”

Usually, that data must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on or around April 30. But this year, that agency has still not released a deadline for local networks to turn in their data, according to Zapata and Multnomah County spokesperson Julia Comnes.

This year’s national data will also be missing a commonly collected detail: gender…

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Photo by Austin De Dios