The 2025 Point-in-Time Count results are IN
- hmistools
- Jul 31, 2025
- 2 min read
During the final week of January, more than 300 volunteers joined us for the 2025 Point-in-Time Count — our annual “census” of Central Floridians who are homeless. The count takes place in communities across the nation at least once every two years, and the data is critical to understanding the scope and trends of homelessness. Most importantly, it helps to guide our local leaders as they make policy and funding decisions.
This year — the first since Florida’s statewide ban on public sleeping and unauthorized camping — our surveyors noted a marked increase in the number of people unwilling to answer questions about where they’d slept. We also found that several encampments had recently been cleared and that people were now living farther back in the woods as they try to avoid arrest.
The overall result was a total count of 2,781 people in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, including those who were in emergency homeless shelters and those living without shelter. All told, that was just five people more than 2024 — a year that saw an 86% increase. While we can attribute some of the findings to our region’s success in getting people back into housing, and while the PIT data is always considered an undercount, we suspect that was especially true this year.
Still, we found some important trends:
More than 40% of Central Florida's homeless population are now children or people age 55 and older.
The number of people experiencing homelessness on Jan. 27 in Orange County — 1,972 — was down by 2.1% compared to the previous year. Seminole’s 436 total was a 3.8% increase over 2024, and Osceola County’s 373 total was up by 8.7% over last year.
Of the total, 1,090 people were found to be living on the streets, in the woods or in their cars in January, a decrease of just four people since 2024. That included 746 in Orange, 156 in Seminole and 188 in Osceola.
The 2025 total was still 156% higher than the total just three years ago.
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