Today, January 28th has been designated as the 2026 PIT, or Point-in-Time, Count day across the country and here in Wright County.
David Miller with Wright County Community Action describes how the PIT Count information helps local officials assess homelessness in our area…
“What it does is it gives us an opportunity to understand how many people are experiencing homelessness, or are homeless throughout our county on one single night.”
Miller says the information helps to track any trends in homelessness in the area, and to have documentation useful in securing funding for various programs that help individuals experiencing homelessness get into housing…
“We know just between the calls that we’re getting that there are more folks out there than what that count actually reflects. There are individuals who are maybe staying in their car, I spoke to a gentleman this morning that is living in his RV. So those are individuals that we would absolutely consider to be homeless, but then we also want to take into consideration individuals who are, sometimes we call it “doubled up,” in other words maybe they are couch-hopping between family or friends, and those are individuals who of course are not in permanent housing…so they are brought into this definition. Plus anyone who might be in an emergency shelter at that time.”
Miller says they will also have approximately one week beyond today to survey individuals on what their living situation was on January 28th.
Surveys are voluntary, and may be taken during food distribution times during the period of January 29th and February 4th. Partner locations for the 2026 PIT Count include the Wright County Government Center in Buffalo, Wright County Community Action in Maple Lake, the WCCA Food Shelf in Waverly, the Buffalo Food Shelf, Monticello Help Center, STMA Food Pantry in Albertville, Love INC Big Woods in Buffalo, and the Great River Regional Library in Buffalo on Tuesday, February 3rd from 3 to 6 PM.
