Oakland city officials issued a call Tuesday for 500 volunteers for the 2026 Point-In-Time Count, P-I-T, on January 22.
The PIT count is a census of people experiencing homelessness that is mandated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The exercise takes place every two years and is led by Alameda County, with assistance from individual cities.
The City of Oakland will be responsible for counting the unsheltered individuals in Oakland. This includes those living in vehicles, encampments, and other locations considered uninhabitable.
Volunteers will work between 5 a.m. and noon on January 22, and will be trained before the count.
The 2024 PIT count revealed that nearly 5,500 homeless people were living in Oakland, making up about 60 percent of the total homeless population in Alameda County. Two-thirds of the city's homeless population was unsheltered.
Mayor Barbara Lee also pointed out that the PIT count is crucial to understanding the demographics of homeless people in the city and the underlying causes of homelessness.
The 2024 PIT count revealed that more than half of the homeless individuals in Oakland were African American, even though African Americans only make up around more than 20 percent of the city's population.
