SALT LAKE CITY — On a single night in January, the Point-in-Time Count is meant to get an estimate of how many Utahns are living on the streets. This year, the numbers showed a 1.6% decrease.
“One thing I can say is that it's been a tough past couple of years, as we've seen homelessness continue to rise,” said State Homeless Coordinator Tyler Clancy. "We're starting to figure out the balance of accountability, of affordable housing, trying to make sure that we have all the different puzzle pieces to a really complex issue.”
However, Kseniya Kniazeva with Nomad Alliance has concerns with the count.
“I think the Point-in-Time Count is flawed in many reasons, because for the three coldest nights in January to find people from 4-6 a.m. — that's an impossible feat for volunteers,” she said. "If I was homeless from 4-6 a.m. on a cold night in January, you wouldn't be able to find me.”
2026 Point-in-Time results at a glance:
- Overall homelessness: 4,512 — down 1.6% from 4,584
- Unsheltered homelessness: 945 — down 9.7% from 1,046
- Chronic homelessness: 1,151 — down 6.7% from 1,233
- Sheltered homelessness: 3,567 — up 0.8% from 3,538
Kniazeva feels many people tend to hide or are incarcerated from certain violations.
“People are hiding the more that the police are giving out tickets for no camping,” she said. "The only way to accurately count the unsheltered population is if you have people from the streets showing you where they are with trust.”
Leo Alejandre used to struggle with addiction but now works for the substance abuse treatment program “Watercourse Way Wellness.” He was incarcerated for 22 years and had a similar concern with the numbers.
"I'm very happy to see the numbers and that they're trending downwards," he said. "Hopefully none of that percentage, or very low percentage of that is people being incarcerated, because I think it'd be really easy to swap out homelessness for incarceration in some cases, and that's just kicking the can down the road.”
FOX 13 News asked Clancy if they take these concerns into account.
“We're certainly not saying that the work is finished, that 'mission accomplished,' right? There's more work to be done, but I think it's important in a space where it's challenging to have that hope on some of these complex issues that are hard to navigate,” he said. "We want to also point out the good.”
Clancy said the next area of focus will be working to combat the increase they saw in seniors entering homelessness for the first time.
WATCH: Older adults are being discharged out of long-term care facilities — and into homelessness
Meanwhile, advocates want more resources, and most importantly, for people to know they’re there to help.
“It all started with one judge,” Alejandre said “ [She] took that chance on me, and it's changed my life, or I could just as easily be homeless right now and adding to the problem. It's about that programming, getting people the knowledge to know that they don't have to live like that anymore.”
