Annual Indianapolis point-in-time count results by year:
2025: 1,815
2024: 1,701
2023: 1,619
2022: 1,761
2021: 1,928
2020: 1,588
2019: 1,567
2018: 1,682
2017: 1,783
2016: 1,619
More people were homeless in Indianapolis in 2025 than in the prior three years, according to the city’s annual point-in-time count of the population conducted in January.
This year’s annual count identified 1,815 individuals, of which 331 were living in cars, outside, in abandoned buildings or in other places not intended for habitation. That is 114 more homeless people than were counted in 2024—a 7% increase.
The count was the second-highest recorded over the past 10 years, trailing only the the 2021 high of 1,928 (see year-by-year results below).
The point-in-time count, or PIT count, is a snapshot representation of where people experiencing homelessness slept on Jan. 23, 2025. An annual PIT count is required for communities to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which supports local homelessness-prevention efforts.
To source the data, volunteers go out on a January night to get an initial count of individuals and survey those they find at about 300 locations determined by outreach workers. In the following few days, volunteers go to shelters and day centers to ask people whom they might have missed where they spent the night in question.
The data excludes residents who were couch surfing, instances of multiple households living in a single unit and individuals who were previously experiencing homelessness but staying in institutional settings, such as hospitals, on that night.
The increase comes just as Indianapolis city officials and homelessness service providers embark on an $8.1 million push to reduce street homelessness by rehousing hundreds of people, with the goal of eventually closing outdoor camps. The initiative, called Streets to Home, is expected to ramp up in August and house between 300 and 350 people currently experiencing unsheltered homelessness over the next nine to 12 months.
Here are some other findings from the 2025 PIT count:
• Black people are still disproportionately experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis, representing 55% of the count and just 30% of the city’s population.
• More people have spent a significant amount of time living in shelters or outdoors. The count found that 401 individuals were experiencing chronic homelessness, which means they have been homeless for at least 12 months or a combined 12 months in the last three years—representing a 24% increase over last year. Those numbers have climbed since 2021, when the city recorded 105 people who were chronically homeless.
• The number of homeless families and unaccompanied youth and young adults saw slight increases.
• Although all other demographics increased, veteran homelessness saw a 26% decrease, from 170 individuals to 125.
Nationally, the 2024 PIT count found the largest rise in the homeless population since 2007. National data for 2025 likely won’t be available until late this summer.
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