City workers, volunteers and homeless services providers fanned out across the city to conduct the annual point-in-time count of people living unhoused, as some sought shelter to escape dangerously low wind chills.
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From the Article:
Last year, the city estimated 7,452 people were experiencing homelessness in that year’s count. Of those, 6,136 people were in shelters or other housing programs while the other 1,316 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness, living on the street or in other locations not meant for human habitation, according to the city’s 2025 report.
James Orange, an unhoused person, sits on a couch under River East as Chicago’s annual point-in-time count was conducted to assess the city’s unhoused population on Jan. 22, 2026. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
Advocates say the one-night count offers a narrow scope of the number of people experiencing homelessness.
In a report released Wednesday, the Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness put that number around 58,000 people in 2024 — significantly higher than the 18,836 people experiencing homelessness who were counted as part of that year’s point-in-time survey.
That’s partly due to the coalition counting people who are staying “doubled up,” or with friends or family, and counting people who experience homelessness throughout the year — groups the point-in-time count doesn’t include.
