Each year a census is taken of the homeless people in Palm Beach County as required by HUD. It is called the "point in time count". The most recent census was taken in a 24 hour period on January 24-25, 2007. It was administered by the Bed & Gaps Committee made up of county officials and service providers.

HUD has clear rules for the homeless count. A person can only be counted if he or she is interviewed and their information is recorded on a form. The interviewers are accompanied by police or sheriff officers. This means the count is considerably understated because people who for reasons of mental illness or fear of authorities aren't willing to be interviewed are missed, and many families who don't want to be identified as homeless because they fear authorities will take away their children if they are known to be homeless are also missed. When reporting to HUD or DCF, we are not allowed to compensate for any estimate of the undercount.

The number of beds available for homeless people in PBC was reported as 1262 beds according to the 2006 Continuum of Care Report ("SuperNova Application", pages 13-16).

Additional information is available from the Board of Education in Palm Beach County. Anax Pompilus is responsible for assuring that homeless children in PBC are not denied the chance to attend school. He reported the following data for the school year Aug'05-May'06. 2037 students were reported homeless during the year in the PBC school district. South County is from Palmetto Park Road to Lantana Road and that area had 43 schools with 540 homeless students. Boca has 22 schools and they had 46 homeless students.

The waiting list for Section 8 certificates is probably not a good indicator of the need for low income housing in Palm Beach County because there are severe limits on new Section 8 certificates and on Section 8 funds from HUD. Many housing authorities have been purposely reducing their waiting list because they know they are not likely to be able to help people. For example, Boca Raton had a waiting list of over 300 families 3 years ago, but as names drop off they have not been replacing them. At present, the waiting list for the Boca Raton housing authority is 75 families. Click here for more on Section 8.