Every year cities and counties around the country conduct a “Point in Time” count to determine how many people are homeless or staying in a facility for survivors of domestic violence. This count takes place during the month of January, which is one of the coldest months of the year with the highest levels of snowfall. This means that, regardless of happened during the other days and months of a given winter, we know that on one winter night there were a specific number of people who were found sleeping outside.
The data from each region's Point in Time count is reported to HUD. Information about counts from past years is currently available on the HUD website for the years 2005 through 2022. Below is the data from those reports about how many people were sleeping outside a winter night in Salt Lake County. Only two years during that period have a total under 100 persons and only one year has a total over 300 persons.
It is good to remember that it was illegal to set up a tent or to camp anywhere in Salt Lake City prior to May, 2010, when the Chief of Police determined that Salt Lake City's laws banning camping were unconstitutional and halted enforcement of them. Before that time unsheltered people were forced to hide somewhere out of sight with a blanket or a sleeping bag if they wanted to sleep without being given a ticket and possibly being booked into the jail. This made unsheltered people much less visible to the public during winters before the one that would be included in the count from January of 2011.
The data from each region's Point in Time count is reported to HUD. Information about counts from past years is currently available on the HUD website for the years 2005 through 2022. Below is the data from those reports about how many people were sleeping outside a winter night in Salt Lake County. Only two years during that period have a total under 100 persons and only one year has a total over 300 persons.
It is good to remember that it was illegal to set up a tent or to camp anywhere in Salt Lake City prior to May, 2010, when the Chief of Police determined that Salt Lake City's laws banning camping were unconstitutional and halted enforcement of them. Before that time unsheltered people were forced to hide somewhere out of sight with a blanket or a sleeping bag if they wanted to sleep without being given a ticket and possibly being booked into the jail. This made unsheltered people much less visible to the public during winters before the one that would be included in the count from January of 2011.
