As the Applied Survey Research website states, “The United States federal government … requires counties to count their homeless populations every two years in order to be eligible for continued federal funding” (ASR ). Because of this, counties are required to complete a Point In-Time count of homeless individuals in their county every two years. Other than requiring that this process be carried out, counties have few limitations or guidelines to follow.

While Point In Time counts seem like a good idea in theory, the truth of the matter is that each county has a high level of autonomy when it comes to deciding how these PIT counts are to be completed. While some counties perform entire canvasing techniques of counting, others do partial counts and sampling methods. This illustrates the potential flaws of these counts and their accuracy, as counties can very well represent the number that they want to represent their city versus the actual counts. The key problem is that some cities believe that high levels of homelessness in their region points to structural problems in the city, reflecting negatively on them. Because of this, their goal may be to find a very low number of homeless individuals.  However, this is not a good strategy in the long run because they will not obtain information on the main issues the homeless are facing or what services they require.
When it comes to counting in these Point In Time counts, each county has the option of deciding how they will carry out their counts of the homeless population. Another issue that surrounds each individual county gathering data in the ways that they want is that it would be incredibly difficult to compare two cities who have obtained the data in such different processes. While one city may place high importance on gathering the most accurate data on their homeless, another may downplay their amount of homeless by minimalistically sekking their data.
Some of the issues with gaining an accurate count, even if the cities are very concerned with obtaining good data is the lack of funding. Although these counts are a requirement of the Federal Government does not provide the funding to make these Point In Time counts happen. This means that the financial burden of carrying out these counts lies on the country itself. While counties and some non-profit organizations sponsor the counts, it seems that if there is a high importance of gathering accurate data on the amounts of homeless individuals, there needs to be additional government funding. Otherwise, each city can skimp by and gather their counts and other data as minimalistically as possible without any reprecussions. While it is very important to continue to produce these counts of homeless individuals, it is also important to gather reliable data and counts that are as accurate as possible. Without increased attention to the accuracy of these counts, it will be nearly impossible to offer the services and care that adequately serve the needs of the homeless.

http://www.appliedsurveyresearch.org/homeless/