Hundreds of volunteers help with Edmonton's 2024 homeless count

Volunteers take part in Edmonton's Point in Time homeless count on Thursday evening. (Sean McClune/CTV News Edmonton)

Hundreds of volunteers took to the streets and park areas around the city for the 2024 Point in Time count on Thursday night.

"It's a visual count of individuals experiencing homelessness in the City of Edmonton," said Jackie Liu, the chief impact officer at Homeward Trust Edmonton.

"Our idea is to get some more data, some information so that we can learn about the state of homelessness in Edmonton right now," he added.

Edmonton has conducted counts since 1999, this year marks its 15th count.

"The count now will happen every year, it used to be every second year," Liu said.

The last count happened in 2022 which reported 2,519 people enumerated in unsheltered, sheltered and systems locations.

"We're expecting numbers in line with what we counted in 2022. Certainly we've seen increases in numbers reported in our By Name List and so the count's a really important way for us to gain a greater understanding of what's happening."

As part of the count volunteers also conducted a voluntary survey.

"The survey does give us information on their experience with homelessness, some barriers they're facing and just greater insights into perhaps why they're in the situation that they're in," Liu said.

The data is used to help plan programs and services to help prevent and end homelessness.

Results from this year's count are expected to be released in early 2025.