*  Due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, a point in time count was only performed on sheltered individuals for 2021. 

Conducting a point-in-time count of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness requires countless hours of planning and volunteers.  Additionally, on the night of the count, it requires people to approach people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to collect data.  Because of COVID-19, CoCs have been short staffed and busy preparing for and implementing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.  Additionally, CoCs are reporting challenges in finding volunteers to survey individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness on the night of the count due to fears of COVID-19.  Further, CoCs are reporting challenges obtaining personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to equip volunteers and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness to have the conversations necessary to collect the required data.  These challenges are present in every part of the country.  As of December 2020, every single state had at least 9 new COVID cases per day per 100,000 population.  For these reasons, providing waiver flexibility for the FY2021 point-in-time count for unsheltered homelessness helps prevent the spread of COVID-19.