El Paso County Homeless Count Falls 19% to 1,413

Overview

• The Pikes Peak Continuum of Care's Point-in-Time Count recorded 1,413 people experiencing homelessness on Jan. 24, a 19% drop from the 1,745 counted in 2025.
• The 2026 count showed 1,105 people in emergency shelters or transitional settings and 308 unsheltered on that night, with 283 individuals meeting the federal chronic homelessness definition.
• Temperatures fell below 0°F during the Jan. 24–28 count window, activating the city's Cold Weather Protocol and likely increasing shelter use and reducing the number of people visible outdoors, PPCoC says.
• PPCoC and local leaders cautioned the PIT is a one-night snapshot that can be skewed by weather, volunteer outreach and timing, and they urged use of year-round HMIS and the State of Homelessness report for fuller trends.
• Local officials and service providers called the result encouraging but said gaps remain, noting a need for roughly 195 more year-round shelter or transitional beds plus sustained outreach and supportive housing to address chronic cases.