2025 Point-in-Time Count

We will soon know more about the number of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County thanks to a caring group of volunteers County-wide who participated in this year’s annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count. More than 40 volunteers, including Councilmember Jennifer Smith, City staff, and a current LEAD Goleta Community Academy participant, arrived at the Goleta Community Center (GCC) bright and early (5:30 a.m.) on January 22nd to get to work counting the number of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in a given day.

The count includes people in emergency shelters, transitional housing, or Safe Havens on a single night. The count was scheduled to take place at this early time because people are more stationary and less likely to be counted twice. Volunteers were placed in different Count teams and assigned their own routes to document who is experiencing homelessness. Each homeless person was offered packs of tissues, socks, snacks and other essentials.

The PIT Count is organized by the Santa Maria/Santa Barbara County Continuum of Care, in partnership with the County of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Alliance for Community Transformation (SBACT). The information collected is used to plan local homeless assistance systems, justify funding, raise public awareness, and track trends that can help the county determine how to best serve the homeless population.

Please stay tuned for the results which will be released later this year.

Thank you to the volunteers and PIT organizers for collecting this important data.


Volunteers gathered at the Goleta Community Center

Pictured top right: 3rd District City Councilmember Jennifer Smith (center) with volunteers