Across the U.S., cities are facing increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, an inadequate supply of deeply affordable housing has made it nearly impossible for individuals and families to move out of the shelter system.

Allegheny County’s 500 in 500 initiative responded to this needs gap with urgency, coordination, flexibility and creative problem-solving. County and City government, housing authorities, nonprofit organizations, foundations, developers and advocacy groups came together to make existing units or building conversions available for people living in shelters. The initiative moved hundreds of people from shelter to permanent housing, freed up shelter space for individuals and families in crisis and reduced strain across the homelessness response system.

Read the report below to learn how the initiative took shape, hear perspectives from those closest to the work and explore results as of day 500.

A Dramatic Change, In 500 Days

Sometimes, if circumstances create a sufficient sense of urgency, leaders can find creative ways to solve what seemed to be a chronic problem. That’s what happened when leaders in Allegheny County came together to design a bold initiative to increase the availability of deeply affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness. The resulting initiative has moved hundreds of people from shelter to permanent housing, freeing up emergency shelter space for individuals and families in crisis.

Across the U.S., cities have been dealing with the growing number of people experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, an inadequate supply of affordable housing made it impossible for individuals and families to move out of the shelter system. The result? Shelters, meant to be a short-term solution to a crisis situation, were serving as longer-term housing for people who were ready to live more independently in permanent affordable housing, while those in need of temporary emergency shelter were forced to wait—on the streets, in parks, in doorways or in temporary encampments. The visibility of these encampments and other issues related to people having no place to go led to a loud and persistent public outcry and call for solutions.

In response, County and City government, housing authorities, nonprofit organizations, foundations, developers and advocacy groups came together to rethink how to help people move from shelters and the streets to permanent residences.

On June 6, 2024, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato introduced a bold initiative called “500 in 500,” with the goal of identifying 500 units of “deeply affordable” housing in the next 500 days to move people from shelter to stable housing.

Two important strategic decisions shaped the initiative. First, instead of undertaking new construction, 500 in 500 focused on making existing units or building conversions available for people living in shelters. Second, it targeted people with relatively low needs for social services whose stay in shelter persisted due to barriers in securing stable housing, such as high rents or finding a unit. The initiative focused on a gap in the system: while existing housing programs prioritize people with higher risk or vulnerability, 500 in 500 was designed for people who do not meet that qualifying threshold and instead just needed an affordable unit to move on from shelter.

“Chronic homelessness is too big an issue, and people don’t know what to do about it,” said Erin Dalton, director of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS). “So we reframed an ongoing, overwhelming problem with a specific, time-limited benchmark for success.”

The initiative’s 500-day mark arrived on October 18, 2025. This report describes the process, the results and how they were achieved.

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Formulating a strategy

Affordable housing was a high priority for Innamorato—and an issue she understood well. Having experienced housing instability as a teen, Innamorato prioritized housing policy issues long before becoming County Executive. She served on the board of the Allegheny County Housing Authority (ACHA), and as a State Representative introduced the landmark Whole Home Repairs Act in the state legislature. When elected to lead Allegheny County, Innamorato made it clear that affordable, accessible housing for everyone in Allegheny County was one of her signature priorities.

For Dalton, who managed DHS’s analytics work before becoming its director, everything starts with data. The most obvious data in this case were rising numbers of people on the streets and longer stays in shelters. But along with increasing need, Dalton also saw hopeful data on the supply side, in the form of the thousands of empty apartment units and subsidized housing vouchers available through the City and County housing authorities.

Public housing and voucher subsidies are in heavy demand, but Rich Stephenson, executive director of ACHA, knew one way to reduce the bottleneck. Since the moratorium on evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic ended, ACHA’s inventory of unoccupied units had grown because previous tenants, who had since been evicted, had left behind units that were uninhabitable.

“We had a substantial number of units with $5,000 to $15,000 of damage, mostly from families who had been living there for a long time and not paying rent,” Stephenson explained. “Because of our limited resources, we could not repair these units. Now, DHS needed these family units.”

Local developers also came to the table to dedicate units specifically for people coming from shelter. “The County Executive set a clear expectation that this was not business as usual,” explained Ed Nusser, Director of Housing Strategy for Allegheny County. “We leveraged the resources we had, telling developers that if they’re getting County support, we now expect some of their units to be available for people to move out of shelter. And the developers stepped up to be part of the solution.”

“The County Executive brought her political will and expertise to bear and coordinated many public- and private-sector players to align around solving this problem,” said Kendall Pelling, executive director of Rising Tide, a community organization with a focus on preserving affordable housing. “We have many projects that would not be happening today without 500 in 500.”

As the vision for 500 in 500 emerged, Allegheny County approached local foundation partners for help. Five area foundations stepped forward with a combined $3.4 million of assistance. While 500 in 500 didn’t have a budget, per se—part of the special sauce was that its success was mostly based on process improvements that didn’t cost money—this private support funded key parts of the initiative, including the rehabilitation of the housing authorities’ vacant rental units and supportive and case management services to assist housing recipients.

“Grantmaking is about investing in people you trust,” said Lauri Fink, senior program officer at Henry L. Hillman Foundation. “We have trust in the County Executive, Erin and County staff to find the best way forward.”

DHS expanded its own complement of staff helping people move from shelters to permanent housing and provided funding that enabled ACHA to hire six staff to provide supportive services to tenants. In addition, the authority used Urban Redevelopment Authority funds to purchase a 19-unit building on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh (HACP) made project-based vouchers (which are attached to the unit, not the resident) available for 500 in 500 tenants moving into ACHA’s North Side location and other private developments.

HACP’s main procedural change involved setting aside both project-based and tenant-based vouchers for the 500 in 500 population. “What made this successful was that our staff interacted directly with the DHS caseworkers rather than the unhoused clients,” said Sauntee Turner, HACP government relations liaison. “They could collect all the needed documents for the application, so we just had to do background checks for eligibility. We got the process down from the usual 30 or 40 days to 11 days.”

The housing authorities also made vouchers portable across municipal lines—which was important, so that people could find an apartment in a neighborhood that worked for them.

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Expediting the flow

Chuck Keenan, an administrator in DHS’s Office of Community Services, saw firsthand the challenges shelter staff faced in helping clients move into permanent housing. Before the 500 in 500 initiative, an effort known as the Second Avenue Commons pilot revealed that shelter staff did not have a clear understanding of eligibility for Continuum of Care (CoC) programs or access to resources that identified viable alternative housing pathways.

DHS addressed these system gaps by sharing information and developing resources to build shared understanding, clarify housing pathways and strengthen alignment across partners. This positioned the County to take on the 500 in 500 initiative from a place of readiness.

With those earlier challenges addressed—and with more public housing units and vouchers coming online—the 500 in 500 goal began to sound achievable. However, success depended on the system’s ability to move people quickly and on whether housing units could remain available long enough to make a match.

Private landlords willing to rent to a 500 in 500 participant could not hold units open indefinitely. To balance timely placements with landlord needs, DHS asked landlords and ACHA to commit to holding a unit for 500 in 500 clients for up to 14 days. “We don’t want our clients to get demoralized by looking at a unit and then finding out it’s been taken,” Keenan explained. “If we can’t match anyone to the unit in two weeks, then they can offer it elsewhere.”

Landlords welcomed the arrangement because it often brought paying tenants quickly. But meeting the 14-day window required case managers to act quickly. When the initiative began, case managers had to physically scan spreadsheets to match potential occupants to units that met their eligibility and preferences.

To address this issue, DHS’s Chief Technology Officer Rachel Silver streamlined the process by constructing a detailed dashboard where participating landlords enter pertinent information about their unit, including location, number of bedrooms, any age requirement, access to public transit, what utilities are included, whether pets or smoking are permitted, and if they will accept tenants with a prior history of felonies or evictions. The dashboard already contains a master list of all public housing properties, so the housing authorities can simply check a box when a particular unit becomes open.

Thanks to this dashboard, case managers can go online, enter a client’s characteristics, and see all the available units that fit the search criteria. Or they can select an open unit, see all the prospective tenants whose criteria match it, and reserve it directly through the platform.

Brent Weinert, who helps individuals prepare for a housing placement, deeply appreciates the changes. “Doing subsidized housing applications takes a lot of paperwork,” he noted. Before 500 in 500, “you might do 20 applications in the hope that one might work.” Now, the dashboard and ACHA’s preference designation for people who have nowhere to live create a high percentage of success. Weinert said that in many cases, clients have been able to move from intake to a housing offer within 30 days.

Weinert’s team has grown to seven caseworkers who conduct housing assessments and develop permanent housing plans for clients who do not qualify for higher levels of supportive housing services.

One frequent obstacle to housing eligibility is that many applicants lack the documentation—birth certificate, social security card and ID card—that public housing authorities require. To resolve that bottleneck, DHS senior advisor Kathy McCauley recruited a team of eight part-time staff, including some DHS retirees with prior case management experience, who have so far helped 700 individuals assemble their documentation so that they are housing-ready. Because new shelter residents continually arrive, this project remains in place.

While Weinert works with single individuals, Remy Harris supervises a team assisting families. Although most families exit from shelter within six months, Harris has seen some stay for much longer—especially those facing housing barriers such as prior evictions, a criminal record, or owing money to a housing authority.

Along with the streamlined matching and application process, Harris credits the stronger relationship between DHS and the housing authorities, which includes weekly coordination meetings, with making her work easier.

“They know they can count on us, so they are more willing to take people coming from the shelter system in their units,” Harris said.

Support from 500 in 500 does not end when an individual or family moves into a home. A tenant support program, created two years ago, embraced the task of reaching out to 300 households during 2025; by October, they had already served 290. Program coordinators work with clients to develop a support plan that addresses tangible needs such as food, transportation, furniture and employment assistance. “I believe the most significant impact our team has made on our clients is not just resource linkage but providing support and reassurance that the client has the ability to maintain housing and to further pursue a life of stability and self-sufficiency,” said James Greer, tenant support program administrator.

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Treating people in tents with dignity

Few people support tent cities in downtown areas, but just as few support callous emptying of encampments where unhoused people have placed their scant possessions. 500 in 500 offered a different approach to this vexing problem.

Muhammad Ali Nasir (better known as Man-E) played a key role. Man-E founded an outreach program for current and former jail residents that expanded into homeless outreach in 2022 and later became part of 1Hood Media. In this role, he met with City and County leaders, insisting that before they cleaned out any encampments, they needed to give residents a viable place to go.

Man-E had been involved from start to finish with a 40-tent encampment that popped up along the Eliza Furnace Trail near downtown. “I gave the first tent to someone living there,” he said. “They’d been kicked out of a shelter. If they were going to shut down the encampment, we wanted it to happen in a dignified way.”

That’s exactly what happened in fall 2024, when the County, City, outreach workers and advocates worked together to move people inside. Man-E and other outreach workers compiled a list of the encampment residents, their living situation (i.e., whether they had a partner, a pet, or other needs) and what housing they would accept. As a placement was identified for each, Man-E helped transport their belongings to the new location. Only then was the tent marked as vacant and ready for removal.

Contrary to popular assumptions, Man-E said the majority of encampment residents were there for financial reasons, not due to mental health or substance use issues. Some had been released from jail with no local family or social support. All were happy to move into housing options that worked for them, including scattered site shelters, bridge programs and permanent housing.

“I did not always trust DHS or City government before this project,” Man-E acknowledged. “Now that I have worked closely with them to eradicate homelessness, I have seen the fruits of their labor.”

Lisa Frank, former chief operating and administrative officer for the City of Pittsburgh, highlighted the impact of 500 in 500 in enabling city government to offer a credible alternative to living unsheltered.

“People can come into a shelter through the front door, but they have to have a back door so that they can leave shelter and be properly housed,” Frank stated. “A congregate shelter with minimal privacy is not how people want to live. A lot of people won’t want to come in from the cold if they think they will end up on the top bunk in a room of 30 people for the next 365 days. With the focus on housing, we create flow in our system. Now, if someone puts up a tent, outreach workers can go out and tell them that this is not a safe place to live but that we can help them find one.

“Unhoused people can see, just like everyone else, what’s working or not working,” Frank added. “When they learn that their friends are finding credible alternatives to living alongside a trail, that changes the conversation. 500 in 500 has made it possible for us to say to people living outside, ‘Come to our shelter and we can work from there.'”

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Results as of Day 500

Quantitatively, there’s no question that 500 in 500 has been a success. As of day 500 (October 18, 2025):

• Forty-nine percent (273) of the units were in the private market, forty-one percent (228) were from a housing authority and the remaining 9% (52) were supportive housing.
• Two hundred forty-four adults, including many who are 55+, and 102 families with children have secured housing. Most families with children had
  a household size of two to four people, but the initiative has found housing for families with as many as eight members.
• Among single adults, the average number of exits to rental units increased 35%, from about 20 per month in the year preceding the initiative to an average of 27 per month during the initiative.
• As of early November 2025, 98% of families with children and 95% of adults who leased a unit through 500 in 500 had not returned to the homelessness system.
• The total number of tents along the riverfront trails and in downtown Pittsburgh reached a high of 143 on August 20, 2024; that number stood at two as of the end of October.

When the County set out to quickly house individuals staying in shelter who were assessed as relatively low-risk, they relied on a predictive risk model—the same model used to identify those eligible for permanent supportive housing. Allegheny County DHS is one of only a few governments in the world using predictive analytics to target interventions. Most systems still depend on manual, time-consuming assessment tools that are less accurate and often reinforce bias. Those approaches result in the less precise identification of target populations, thus diluting the impact of interventions. In contrast, DHS’s models have repeatedly proven to be more accurate than traditional methods and to reduce racial disparities in outcomes. This data-driven precision is a key reason for the success of 500 in 500.

Among over 400 people who leased through 500 in 500 through June 2025:

• Only 6% subsequently experienced a mental health crisis
• A remarkably low 1% had a mental health inpatient stay
• Only 4% had more than four emergency department visits (compared with over 40% for their high-risk peers staying in shelter)
• Only 1% had a booking in the County Jail

Qualitatively, participants and stakeholders have expressed appreciation for the quality and efficiency of service; the fruitful collaboration between DHS and the City and County housing authorities; the inclusion of a broad range of stakeholders concerned about the attractiveness of downtown Pittsburgh; and the innovation and decency with which Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have tackled the vexing problems of homelessness and tent encampments.

“It was a privilege to be invited to the 500 in 500 table early on,” said Matt Galluzzo, president and CEO of Riverlife. “Erin Dalton and DHS have done a brilliant job of using data to understand the problem better, advance solutions, and set an audacious goal to get the system working as it should. I commend the City and County for approaching this problem in an appropriate and dignified way. This is a great example of Pittsburghers understanding our community and rallying to support those in need.”

“It is exciting to see so many City and County departments come together to work toward the same end goal,” said Fink of Henry L. Hillman Foundation.

“500 in 500 has succeeded in getting everyone focused on moving people into housing.”

Chuck Rohrer, HACP communications director, echoed Fink’s sentiments: “The interagency cooperation is much better than before. It’s nice to see that Pittsburgh can pull together and achieve such an ambitious goal.”

“I could never have imagined a government office operating with this speed and agility, especially while relying on in-house expertise,” said Silver, the DHS technology officer. “Peers at other levels of government are often surprised by how quickly we can move and how much we do in-house.”

For ACHA’s Stephenson, the chance to deploy his agency’s resources with greater effectiveness has been rejuvenating. “This partnership is not going to end on the 500th day,” he declared. “It will absolutely continue as long as I am sitting here.”

County Executive Innamorato said, “I’m thrilled with the success of 500 in 500. Not only did we exceed our goals in terms of identifying units and housing people, we forged new partnerships and changed systems that will continue to provide lasting benefits well past day 500.”

Thank You to Our Partners

Download Full Report (PDF, 150 MB)

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

We invite you to explore this page and its resources to learn about two data driven models—the Allegheny Housing Assessment (AHA) and the Mental Health Allegheny Housing Assessment (MH-AHA). These are decision support tools that the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) uses to improve equity and transparency in how we prioritize placement—and ultimately improve outcomes—in housing and mental health residential services.

Allegheny Housing Assessment (AHA)

Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) and Rapid Rehousing (RRH) are two long-term housing programs operated by Allegheny County’s Continuum of Care (CoC). Because referrals for placement in these programs exceed capacity every year, we have to prioritize for placement those who are at highest need and would benefit from it the most.

The Allegheny Housing Assessment (AHA) is a tool that uses administrative data to support decision making in this prioritization process. It is a significant improvement from the previous method of prioritization, which required the use of a lengthy questionnaire that was time-consuming to administer, distressing to applicants and unreliable. In August 2020, DHS implemented the Allegheny Housing Assessment (AHA), a model developed by a team led by Dr. Rhema Vaithianathan and partners at the Centre for Social Data Analytics↗. This model has been shown to improve equity in the allocation of housing resources. As part of DHS’s commitment to continued quality assurance, it was updated in 2025.

Mental Health Allegheny Housing Assessment (MH-AHA)

Mental Health Residential (MH-Res) programs are a high-demand resource that require prioritization and waitlist management. The purpose of the Mental Health Allegheny Housing Assessment (MH-AHA) is to identify people who are at the highest risk of future mental health inpatient stays and repeated ER visits and thus most in need of MH-Res services. This model offers a low-cost and data-driven way to assess individuals in Allegheny County for their level of need to help prioritize this limited resource. 

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, email us at  DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider  signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) partnered with Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) to launch a new transportation assistance program in November 2022 called the Discounted Fares Pilot. This program offered free and reduced-price PRT rides for county residents ages 18 to 64 who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, along with their 6- to 17-year-old children. The fare discounts were allocated using a lottery. Each household in the pilot was randomly assigned to one of three groups, each with equal probability. One group received unlimited free PRT trips, a second group received a 50% discount on all PRT trips, and a third group received no discount. The fare discounts lasted 16 to 19 months for the free-fare and half-fare groups.

Key Takeaways

1. The Pilot began with strong enrollment—over 14,000 people. A total of 9,544 adults and 4,928 children enrolled in the Pilot during the three-month open enrollment period. The majority of adult participants were female (72%) and Black (59%). Participants reported taking an average of ten PRT trips per week and spending an average of nearly $30 on public transportation per week at the time they enrolled in the Pilot.
2. Free fares increased public transit ridership. On average, participants in the free-fare group took 1.48 more trips per week—a 43% increase—compared to those who paid regular price for their trips. In contrast, transit usage among participants who received half-priced fares was not statistically different from those who paid regular price for their trips.
3. Fare discounts eased financial hardships. Near the end of the discount period—around 15 months into the pilot program—recipients of free fares reported spending $17.09 less per week on public transit compared to participants who paid full price for their transit usage. Participants paying half-priced fares reported spending $5.64 less per week on public transportation than participants who paid full price for each ride.
4. Among participants who began the study without a job, free fares led to meaningful gains in employment and income. Over the first year and a half of the program, unemployed individuals who received free transit were 6% more likely to secure paid work than those who paid full price. Free-fare recipients also earned nearly $2,850 more—a 28% increase in earnings—compared to participants who covered their own transit costs. These findings suggest free public transit can increase financial stability and employment opportunities for low-income residents in Allegheny County.
5. The short duration of the fare discounts may have limited their impact on other social and educational outcomes. The study found small and statistically insignificant impacts on healthcare utilization and criminal justice involvement (including appearances in court). Fare discounts had no detectable impact on school attendance among children who attend Pittsburgh Public Schools.

How DHS Uses This Information

DHS has used the results from this pilot to inform the design and implementation of a longer-term program called AlleghenyGo, which offers a 50% PRT discount for working-age county SNAP beneficiaries and their children. Click here to learn more about AlleghenyGo.

Past Reports and Resources

1. Evaluation of First Year of Pilot Program – Interim Results (May 2024)
2. Research and Evaluation Plan for Pilot Program (2022)

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) actively monitors the size, location and conditions of tent encampments in areas frequented by people without housing (e.g., Downtown Pittsburgh and the riverfront trails).

What data is available?

The encampment survey dashboard covers encampment data for three areas – the North Side trail, South Side trail, and areas in Downtown Pittsburgh with visible homelessness. Surveyors document information in an online survey tool, including the location of the encampment, the number of tents/structures and whether any immediate action is needed. The data helps DHS track changes in encampment conditions, size, and location over time. The dashboard displays encampment counts from May 2023 to the present, and its data updates weekly.

This data does not attempt to calculate the number of people using tent encampments.  A tent or makeshift structure may house one or more people. It may also be vacant, shared, borrowed or used for storage. This dashboard’s scope is confined to specific locations with visible homelessness around Pittsburgh. It does not include data on other encampments that may be hidden from public view but still known to DHS or other outreach providers.

How does DHS use the dashboard data?

This information is reported weekly to DHS, the City of Pittsburgh, and homeless outreach and partner organizations, to ensure that they have the best information available for decision-making and to provide a timely response to any issues that may impact the safety of people using and/or sleeping in these public spaces. In addition to using these data to drive real-time action, trends in the data help quantify community needs, including emergency shelter demand and crisis response planning. This data – crossed with other data sources about the number of people experiencing homelessness – provides measurable outcomes to understand the extent to which investments in housing and supportive services impact visible homelessness.
 
DHS is aware that the presence of tent encampments can generate strong feelings in the public – from concern for health and safety to discomfort or fear. However, homelessness is often a negative outcome of economic hardship, systemic inequities and trauma – outcomes many people experience. Therefore, DHS encourages dashboard viewers to interpret the data with care. Interpretations made from this data should remain mindful of peoples’ lived experience.  
 
This dashboard has the opportunity to influence public policy, inform public safety, enhance outreach responses and support broad efforts to improve the lives of individuals in the community. If you are interested in learning more about housing instability and homelessness, we invite you to review additional related dashboards and reports on homelessness and shelters.

Click here to view the Encampment Survey Dashboard.

Questions or Feedback?

We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.

The Intimate Partner Violence Reform Initiative was created in May 2022 to coordinate policy and system-level work across agencies in Allegheny County to improve a complex and fragmented system for both survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) and those who use violence.

Stakeholders from local and federal criminal justice systems, victim service organizations, community groups, healthcare and human services are working to improve the ways in which people can access help, how our systems work together and share information, and how we can prevent the most serious harm. This includes innovations in adapting and implementing intimate partner violence focused deterrence strategies in Allegheny County.

Each year, Allegheny County participates in a national census, required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), of the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night. The Point-in-Time count enumerates people experiencing homelessness in the County who are sheltered (residing in emergency shelters), unsheltered (residing in places not meant for human habitation) or participating in a short-term, supportive housing program (transitional and safe haven).

What happened in 2025?

Allegheny County’s 2025 count was conducted on January 28, 2025. The number of people counted as unsheltered increased by 66%, from 169 in 2024 to 281 in 2025. These increases did not align with DHS’s real-time data collection (from street outreach and weekly monitoring of tents), which indicated stable or even downward trends in unsheltered homelessness.   

Unable to explain these contradictory results, we began a review of the methodology used for the Point-in-Time count. Our review found that the process for the January count did not have clear documentation and that some practices did not align with HUD recommendations, making interpretation of the results challenging. We decided to repeat the count, with a clearly documented methodology based more closely on HUD guidance, on March 18, 2025. The March 2025 count showed a 44% increase in unsheltered homelessness since January 2024 (from 169 to 244 people).   

We consulted with representatives from street outreach teams and members of the Homeless Advisory Board (HAB) to discuss results and for assistance in interpreting patterns in the data. The 2025 Point-in-Time report describes the methodologies and results of both the January and March counts. Also included are preliminary interpretations of the results and next steps. Refer to the dashboard to explore Point-in-Time data trends over time.

Key Takeaways in 2025?

1. We’ve seen increases in shelter usage among both adults and individuals in families with children. More adults and individuals in families with children were staying in shelter during both 2025 Point-in-Time counts than in the 2024 count. In January 2025, 570 adults and 354 individuals in families with children were in shelter. In March 2025, 550 adults and 336 individuals in families with children were in shelter. Compared to 2024, these counts represent relatively small increases, ranging from 3-7% for adults and 4-9% for individuals in adult-child households.
2. We have greatly expanded outreach, which likely resulted in a more comprehensive count. The City of Pittsburgh and the County have invested in outreach workers in recent years to help deal with rising homelessness. These workers are the main enumerators in annual Point-in-Time counts. The increased capacity for and geographic scope of outreach workers has likely resulted in identifying more people experiencing homelessness over the years. For example, increases in people counted in the East End may be at least partially explained by increases in street outreach capacity.
3. There are high rates of turnover in the unsheltered population. Only 19% of individuals counted were counted in both the January and March counts. For those counted in only one, almost two-thirds were not enrolled with street outreach programs using HMIS.
4. Using “people working with street outreach” as a proxy for a count of unsheltered individuals results in an incomplete picture. The 2025 Point-in-Time counts illustrated that the proxy we used for estimating people experiencing unsheltered homelessness—working with street outreach—misses people experiencing short or intermittent episodes of unsheltered homelessness.
5. The Point-in-Time count of unsheltered people has increased, but changes in approach make interpretation of the results challenging. Identifying increases or decreases in unsheltered homelessness year-over-year is problematic given changing methodologies over time. This means that we cannot confidently attribute these changes to real changes in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness versus changes in how we are counting people.

How is the County moving forward?

DHS is partnering with Bloomberg Associates, experts in Point-in-Time count methodologies, to facilitate a diverse workgroup of stakeholders to evaluate the methodology we have employed, to compare that current methodology to best practices in other jurisdictions, to provide recommendations for improving our methods, and to create a refined methodology that they will help us implement in January 2026. Bloomberg Associates will also externally validate our fidelity to the new methodology.

We expect that the methodology employed in the January 2026 count will differ from what we have used in the past. It may include the use of a larger and more diverse set of volunteers, a more explicit way to choose the locations to canvass throughout the County and/or a more intentional plan to survey people on the night of the count. Because of anticipated improvements, the newly designed methodology will serve as our baseline going forward. We will make the new methodology available publicly.

Previous Reports in this series

• 2024 Point-in-time Brief
• 2023 Point-in-time Brief
• 2022 Point-in-time Brief
• 2020 Point-in-time Brief
• 2019 Point-in-time Brief
• 2018 Point-in-time Brief
• 2017 Point-in-time Brief
• 2016 Point-in-time Brief
• 2015 Point-in-time Brief
• 2010-2014 Point-in-time Brief

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) engages clients and others who interact with DHS programs in a variety of ways: regular roundtables/cabinets (e.g., Children’s Cabinet); town halls and community forums; social media (e.g., Facebook and LinkedIn); and the Director’s Action Line (DAL). In 2018, DHS expanded its public engagement strategy to include SMS text messaging (texting), a tool that is convenient for recipients and allows DHS to scale up communication with clients and other Allegheny County residents.

How does DHS use text outreach? 

DHS uses text outreach in a variety of ways, including collecting feedback after a service touchpoint, increasing program engagement, recruiting for paid research opportunities, and providing timely alerts. Text messaging has allowed DHS to connect clients to resources at scale, and to solicit feedback from clients who would likely never otherwise have the time or opportunity to share their feedback.

What data is available?

The data brief provides more information about the communication strategy and descriptive analytics from 2018 to 2022. The interactive dashboard, which is updated daily, allows users to drill down to individual text campaigns to understand the purpose, the number of messages sent, and the demographics of people who were contacted.

Terms and Conditions

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Pittsburgh-Allegheny County is one of eight sites participating in the Community Choice Demonstration (CCD) – a large-scale, multi-site randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of offering housing mobility-related services to families with children in the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. The CCD builds on prior research showing that growing up in lower-poverty neighborhoods increases children’s academic achievement, long-term earnings as adults, and selected improved health outcomes for children and adults.

What is this report about? 

This Rapid Cycle Evaluation is the first report assessing the early implementation of the Demonstration and capturing the initial impact and costs of comprehensive mobility-related services (CMRS). The report provides preliminary findings on the locational outcomes for 596 HCV families with children who enrolled in the first 8 months of the 6-year Demonstration through March 2023. This is the first of a series of reports expected over the next eight years detailing progress of the Demonstration, which began in August of 2022 and ends in October 2028.

What are the takeaways?

An analysis of 12 months of data indicates that the Demonstration is having a statistically significant, positive impact on moves to low-poverty, high opportunity areas. Almost 24% of HCV families with children who received CMRS moved to an opportunity area, compared to 4% percent of HCV families in the control group. The offer of CMRS resulted in a nearly 20 percentage point increase in the share of families moving to an opportunity area within 12 months of study enrollment.

From May through August 2024, Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) engaged in a comprehensive needs assessment. The purpose of the assessment was to determine how DHS can best address the needs of individuals and families living in poverty and promote stability and economic security using Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) funds and other flexible funding across the agency. The assessment included collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from community members and service providers.

Read the new report here.

What are the takeaways?

• Despite a decrease in the overall poverty rate, there remain deep disparities in poverty by demographic groups. Black people, women with children and people with less than a high school diploma experience poverty at twice to three times Allegheny County’s rate.
• Finding job opportunities was the number one challenge reported by survey respondents seeking employment. Additional barriers to employment include transportation and resumé/application preparation.
• Workforce participant engagement for those receiving SNAP and TANF (i.e., those with low income, for whom relevant data are available) increased from 2021 to 2022, possibly explained by COVID-related participation extensions. The demand for job readiness/training programs among this population, particularly for SNAP recipients who are female and Black, is expected to increase further as SNAP work requirement waivers expire in 2025.

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) funds programs to assist young adults who are transitioning out of the child welfare system (also known as transition-aged youth) to secure employment, education, housing, behavioral health services, financial advice and more. Despite these service offerings, transition-aged youth have higher rates of homelessness, substance use, mental health challenges and incarceration, as well as lower rates of high school graduation compared with people who were not involved with the child welfare system. While targeted services are important, some human service needs result from poverty, which can be mitigated by providing direct financial assistance.

What is this report about?

In the summer of 2023, DHS launched a direct cash support program called Cash Assistance for Allegheny Young Adults (CAAYA), which provided a one-time payment of $4,000 to young adults, ages 18 through 22, with a history in the child welfare system, who were experiencing homelessness or were young parents who had an open case with Allegheny County’s child welfare office. In this report, we present a mixed-methods approach to evaluating the impact of CAAYA, including longitudinal surveying, a quasi-experimental analysis of administrative data in the Allegheny County Data Warehouse, and semi-structured interviews with cash recipients.

What are the takeaways?

• CAAYA recipients demonstrated significant financial need. At the launch of the program, only 35% reported being currently employed and only 29% reported being in school either full-time or part-time. Those who had some form of formal employment in the 12 months before the program had mean annual earnings of $10,174. Twenty-eight percent had one or more children.
• CAAYA recipients also lacked financial support within their community. Two-thirds of recipients reported not knowing anyone who would lend them $500 in a time of crisis.
• Overall, the program encouraged about 100 individuals to open a bank account. Seventy-five percent (n = 774) of recipients chose to receive the money via bank account transfer and 25% via a virtual gift card.
• Recipients used the cash assistance quickly. On average, $2,769 of the $4,000 was spent within the first month.
• Car-related expenses ranked as the number one item for planned expenditures, and there was a 41% relative increase in car ownership three months after receiving the money.
• The program improved self-reported well-being after receiving financial assistance, but the effects faded in the subsequent months.
• CAAYA recipients increased their use of mental health outpatient therapy by 7% compared to a control group of individuals who were narrowly ineligible for the program. There was no change in utilization of crisis and inpatient services. In contrast to self-reported well-being, the program’s impact on usage of outpatient mental health services persisted for at least eight months after receiving funds.

How is this report being used?

As a result of this program, we are exploring additional opportunities to leverage cash assistance with this population to increase engagement in holistic supports and services. We are also considering longer-term programs with more frequent, smaller payments to targeted populations.  For future programs, we hope to receive state waivers for the impact of cash assistance on public benefits, especially if a program is designed to include ongoing payments.

For other local governments or providers who are considering cash assistance programs, we hope this report serves as a resource for program design and evaluation. Local governments should note that the success of the CAAYA program would not have been possible without our partner organizations. Trust in government significantly impacts the accessibility of services, particularly for marginalized communities. When first hearing about the cash assistance, many individuals who were eligible to receive the money thought that it was a scam. This skepticism was eased by having multiple trusted intermediaries ensure that it was a real program and that they should apply.

What is this dashboard about?

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) partnered with Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) to launch a transportation assistance program called Allegheny Go. This program offers half-price PRT rides for county residents ages 12 to 64 who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and do not receive any other transit fare discounts. 

Allegheny Go builds on the success of the Allegheny County Discounted Fares Pilot Program, which ran from November 2022 through June 2024.  

This dashboard describes the application process and reports on application statistics and participant demographics.  

How is this dashboard being used?

DHS has set a goal of enrolling 15,000 participants in Allegheny Go. This dashboard tracks progress towards that goal. Staff monitor how many applications are received, how many are eligible, and make sure eligible participants receive their discounts.  

What is the Community Need Index?

The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) conducts a Community Need Index (CNI) to identify specific areas that are in greater need, and face larger socioeconomic barriers, relative to others. The newest version of the CNI index ranks neighborhoods by need level by looking at:

• The percentage of families who live below the poverty line
• The percentage of unemployed or unattached males
• The percentage of those aged 25 and up without at least a Bachelor’s degree
• The percentage of single parent households
• The percentage of households without internet access
• Rate of homicide per 100,000 residents
• Rate of fatal overdoses per 100,000 residents

The researchers used a census tract level to break up the region and assess needs. Census tracts are static, relatively small subdivisions of a county.

How can I view the findings?

An interactive map allows users to view and extract data from the 2024 CNI (which uses 2022 five-year data estimates and totals). The new report focuses on all of Allegheny County, examines changes in need over time, and places emphasis on the connection between race and community need. Earlier reports are linked below.

What are the takeaways?

• In Allegheny County, we continue to find the highest levels of need in specific sections of the City of Pittsburgh (Hill District, South Hilltop, parts of the West End, Upper East End neighborhoods, Upper Northside) as well as census tracts outside the City of Pittsburgh (Mon Valley, sections of the Allegheny County River Valley, sections of Penn Hills, sections of Wilkinsburg, Stowe-Rocks).
• There are vast discrepancies between the lowest need communities, which have an average poverty rate of 2%, and the highest need communities, where the average poverty rate is 38%.
• With few exceptions, census tract-level community need is persistent over time.
• Only about one-third of Allegheny County’s Black residents live in lower-need communities. For every other racial and ethnic group in the County, the majority of residents live in lower need communities. Black communities in Allegheny County have disproportionately high levels of need, as do a number of racially mixed communities. 
• Poverty status alone does not account for where various racial and ethnic groups tend to live by level of need; poor Black and Latino families are more likely than other poor families to live in higher need communities. Even Black families above the poverty line are many times more likely than their Asian, White and Latino peers above the poverty line to live in higher need communities.

How is this report used?

The geographic dimensions of community need can help inform many aspects of DHS’s strategic planning and resource allocation decisions, such as decisions on where to locate Family Centers or new after-school programs.

Where can I go for more information?

For more information, you can read previous reports below. Or you can reach out to DHS-Research@alleghenycounty.us with any questions.

Previous reports in this series 

• 2018 update (all county)
  • 2018 Storymap
• 2014 update (suburbs)
• 2012 update (suburbs)
• 2000-2009 (suburbs)
• 2000-2012 (city)

Previous datasets in this series

• 2018 (all county)
• 2014 (suburbs)
• 2000-2012 (city)

County human services includes programs from over 300 community-based agencies and is delivered by social workers, peers, and outreach staff working all throughout the county. These staff run out-of-school-time programs, answer hotlines, investigate reports of potential harm to children and vulnerable adults, deliver meals to seniors and run Senior Centers, make home visits to families with newborns, and do the administrative work that makes our human services run efficiently.

What is this report about?

This report highlights the 2023 accomplishments that stood out. There are many, many other achievements that people told us about. We chose the ones that made the biggest difference.

In Allegheny County, a network of shelters provides temporary places to stay for people experiencing homelessness. Allegheny County’s emergency shelter network includes facilities that serve only adults and others that offer spaces to families with children or other dependents (family shelters).

What is this report about?

This data brief focuses on the group of approximately 598 people in 184 households that enrolled in one of six family shelters at least once from April 2022 through March 2023. People are eligible for family shelters if they are 1) an adult with a minor child(ren) or a child over 18 years old still enrolled in high school, 2) a woman or couple without a minor child where the woman is in her third trimester of pregnancy, or 3) a couple unable to separate or parent with an adult child where one is caregiving for the other.

See the related data briefs, “People Using Adult-Only Emergency Shelters in Allegheny County” and “People Experiencing Unsheltered Homelessness in Allegheny County” for descriptions of other people served in the homeless system

What are the takeaways?

• Ninety percent (N=165) of heads of household who used family shelters were female and Black individuals were over-represented – 77% of heads of households were Black, but Black individuals only make up 14% of the county. Most households (71%) consisted of an adult female head of household and one or more children. Forty-nine percent of children (N=179) were age 5 or younger at the time they entered a family shelter. An additional 35% were ages 6 through 12 and 16% were ages 13 through 17.
• Most families had not recently used the shelter system and only stayed once. 84% of families only used shelter once during this period and only 6% had used a shelter or County housing program in the year prior to their first stay.
• Although half of families stayed in shelter for more than two months, the largest group of families exited within a week of entering. Seventy-nine percent (N=153) of all stays resulted in households exiting to stable housing, which includes a County housing program (32%), housing with family or friends (27%), or an owned or rented property (19%). An additional 19% exited to another shelter.
• Income is limited for heads of household using family shelters. 70% (N=129) of heads of household self-reported income from any source, with an average monthly income of $923. Additionally, DHS was able to access Pennsylvania Labor and Industry information for 171 individuals in this cohort (93%). Of these heads of household, 47% (N=81) had earnings, with an average monthly income of $1,243.
• About a third of Medicaid-enrolled heads of household used behavioral health services, most of which were mental health outpatient services. The most common diagnosis was acute stress disorder (30% of people with a diagnosis), a short-term mental health condition that can occur within the first months after experiencing a traumatic event.
• Asthma was the most common chronic condition for Medicaid-enrolled children using shelter and the second most common for heads of household. Asthma rates for both are twice as high as those in the general Medicaid-enrolled population in the County
• Fifteen percent of families using these shelters had an active child welfare case in the year prior to their stay. This could indicate the need for additional support and safety nets within the child welfare system or as families transition out of it.

How is this report being used? 

Emergency shelters are meant to be short-term accommodations for people experiencing a crisis. The County’s goal is to ensure that shelter stays are rare, brief and non-recurring.  The County is working with shelter staff and other housing providers to support client moves to stable housing when possible, with the goal of improving their overall outcomes and ensuring that short-term beds are available when people need them. 

This dashboard shows trends in the number of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness.

What is this dashboard about?

This dashboard displays: 1) the number of people who were active in an emergency shelter program per night dating back to January 2022, as well as basic demographic information on race, gender, and age; and 2) a weekly count of street outreach clients who had experienced unsheltered homelessness at some point in the last 30 days.

What data is available?

Emergency shelter data comes from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and is updated daily. Unsheltered homeless data is updated weekly. Before September 1, 2024 the data came from a document used to facilitate coordination between local street outreach teams; data after September 1, 2024 comes from HMIS, as teams have standardized and expanded data entry in HMIS. 

Those active in local domestic violence emergency shelters are not represented in this dashboard, as domestic violence emergency shelters do not report usage in HMIS. These shelters have the capacity to serve approximately 100 clients per day.