KIC-IT’s office in Franklin, where it spearheads coaching, school-based intervention, transitional housing and other programs for youth ages 16 to 25 facing homelessness, is seeing more than double the number of clients this year than it did in 2024. That number reflects data collected during the annual Point in Time County on Jan. 29, which showed an increased number of individuals experiencing homeless throughout Indiana. SUBMITTED PHOTO
KIC-IT’s office in Franklin, where it spearheads coaching, school-based intervention, transitional housing and other programs for youth ages 16 to 25 facing homelessness, is seeing more than double the number of clients this year than it did in 2024. That number reflects data collected during the annual Point in Time County on Jan. 29, which showed an increased number of individuals experiencing homeless throughout Indiana. SUBMITTED PHOTO
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HOW TO HELP

KIC-IT mentor training

What: KIC-IT, a group providing resources and programs for young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, is in need of adults to serve as a mentor for its H.O.M.E.S. program to work with and encourage clients. Staff have planned a training session for interested mentors.

When: 6-7:30 p.m. Aug. 14

Where: 104 W. Jefferson St., Franklin

Information: kic-it.org

Point in Time Count results

Number of Indiana residents counted as experiencing homelessness during the count held each January.

2025: 6,675

2024: 6,306

2023: 6,017

2022: 5,449

— Figures reflect counts done by the Indianapolis Continuum of Care, covering Marion County, and the Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care, covering the other 91 Indiana counties.
The number of homeless youth walking through KIC-IT’s doors keeps growing.

The Johnson County agency provides individualized programs and support for youth, ages 16 to 25, to help break the cycle of homelessness by assisting them in making sustainable life changes. Through coaching, school-based intervention and transitional housing, among other programs, the group has annually served about 60 young people in years past.

However, already in 2025, KIC-IT has seen 111 clients — nearly doubling the number they served all of last year in just seven months.

“We think that’s because of a few different reasons. Obviously, the need. But one of the biggest hurdles everybody is experiencing in our community is a lack of affordable housing,” said Amanda Hoff, executive director of KIC-IT. “It is a huge hurdle to overcome to get our clients to a place where they can afford to live in our county.”

More and more Johnson County residents are struggling with housing, an issue echoing through counties all over Indiana. That fact was driven home by leaders and advocates during the 2025 State of Homelessness Address, presented on Thursday by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, or IHCDA.

Officials revealed the results of the annual Point-in-Time Count, which attempts to tabulate the number of homeless individuals across the state on a single day.

Throughout the state, 6,675 people were counted as being in an emergency shelter, transitional housing or living unsheltered in places such as cars, parks, abandoned buildings and encampments. That’s an increase from 6,306 in 2024. Indianapolis’ count was held on Jan. 22 and recorded 1,815 people, while the rest of the state’s count of 4,860 was done Jan. 29.

“While we’re talking about numbers and data, the data presented today represents real Hoosiers experiencing homelessness across our state, and that’s why most of us are here,” said Jordan Stanfill, chair of the Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care board. “We don’t want to forget about that — these are real people who are sleeping outside or in their cars.”

The goal of the homelessness address on Thursday was to paint a picture of homelessness for the Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care. The group aims to end homelessness by funding efforts and promoting access to mainstream programs for homeless individuals and families in all Indiana counties except Marion, which falls into another Continuum of Care.

Driving the presentation was the IHCDA, an organization promoting community-wide commitment to ending homelessness. The group serves as a liaison between Continuum of Care organizations and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Part of its work is overseeing the annual statewide Point in Time counts.

The Point in Time Count is a single-night snapshot of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness. The count is held every year in January across the United States and is designed to paint a picture of who is homeless in a community.

“Nearly 500 volunteers went out on super-cold January days to make sure we have as accurate as possible of people experiencing homelessness across our state,” Stanfill said.

The count includes people who are sleeping in emergency shelters, transitional housing, cars, parks, abandoned buildings, bus and train stations, streets and encampments. Not included in the house are people who are couch surfing, in hospitals, incarcerated, in treatment facilities or in hotels paid for by the individual.

“The Point in Time Count is a snapshot. It tells the story of what happened on one day,” said Daniella Jordan Gonzales, the Homeless Management Information System data analyst for the IHCDA.

The Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care shows an increase in people experiencing homelessness over the past four years. In 2025, 4,860 people were counted as homeless — 3,659 in sheltered locations and 1,201 in unsheltered locations, such as parks or encampments.

Since 2022, the number of people recorded for the Point in Time Count in the Indiana Balance of State Continuum of Care has steadily risen, from 3,688 that year to 4,398 in 2023, 4,605 in 2024 and 4,860 this year. The growth of the count is outpacing overall population growth — the count has grown 17% over the past four years, compared to population growth of 2.9% in Indiana, Jordan Gonzales said.

The number of people sleeping in unsheltered locations such as parks or their cars has also increased, growing 123.6% over the past six years. Increases were also seen in people in households without children and people in emergency shelters, Jordan Gonzales said.

Those things could be part of what’s driving the overall increase in the count, she said. But while those numbers paint a picture of people who are homeless in the community, it is an incomplete picture, she said.

“It is important to mention that at least 4,860 people were experiencing homelessness, and that is just to reiterate the importance of not taking this number as a given; this is the number that was able to be captured, all of the effort and time put into this report,” Jordan Gonzales said. “But there were many people out there who were not counted or chose not to participate who were also experiencing homelessness.”

Despite the Point in Time Count only serving as an incomplete snapshot, KIC-IT leaders see every day the growing number of young local residents facing homelessness.

KIC-IT — which stands for Kids in Transition Intervention Team — was created in 2011 as the need for homeless youth services became more evident in Johnson County. The organization has three main programs focused on meeting that goal.

The youth development program is aimed at local youth in need of coaching with safe and stable housing, financial stability and developing sustainable life skills. Coaches provide encouragement and guidance, assisting them in setting goals, making connections and achieving sustainability.

“We’re working alongside the youth to help them identify their goals and the steps they can take towards their goals. It encourages a lot more of them helping to learn the skills of problem solving and finding resources and working alongside of them, rather than managing them,” Hoff said.

Since 2021, KIC-IT has also offered transitional housing. Young people living at the organization’s two transitional houses work on three primary goals as part of the program: gaining employment or continuing their education, improving budgeting and financial skills, and increasing life skills.

This is the only transitional housing program in Johnson County, which also does not have a homeless shelter.

“We’re working on getting them from instability to stability in 12 months. So we have a short amount of time to work with those clients to get to the place where they can be independently or stability housed,” Hoff said.

The organization’s Youth Ally for Homeless Education and Prevention, or YAHEP, works in Center Grove, Whiteland and Indian Creek high schools. About 210 homeless students are reported in Johnson County, though Hoff knows those numbers are likely undercounting the problem.

YAHEP aims at identifying students at risk of dropping out or becoming homeless, and works with school staff to coach them and get them help.

“The focus is more on prevention,” Hoff said. “A lot of focus is on graduation, having the support and resources to graduate, because we know that is the biggest risk factor for youth homelessness — something like 336% more likely to be homeless if they don’t have a high school diploma.”

A myriad factors contribute to homelessness issues in the county, including a lack of affordable housing, difficulties producing documents to access available resources and a problem with transportation.

Many of the clients who come to KIC-IT have not had anyone in their lives to model and teach the skills they need to succeed.

“The thing that people struggle to realize is, if you have that lack of support and a lack of that modeling of skills you need to transition into adulthood, there are so many barriers to our clients to overcome,” Hoff said. ”It takes a lot of support and guidance that is needed to help them overcome those barriers so they can be self-sufficient.”

If anyone wants to help mentor young people through KIC-IT, they are encouraged to get involved in its H.O.M.E. Mentor Program, providing help, opportunity, mentorship and empowerment to young people. A training session will be held Aug. 14 at the organization’s Franklin office.

“We’re really trying to get to a place where we can have a mentor for each of our clients that we serve,” Hoff said.
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