Vermont Balance of State PIT and HIC

Point In Time (PIT)

Annual count and survey of unsheltered and sheltered homeless persons. 

This year the PIT date is January 28, 2026.

• Conducted on a single night in January, typically the 4th Wednesday. 
• Every community nationwide participates in the count.
• The unsheltered and sheltered count will continue as normal for 2026 in your state. 

The following information is for agencies that are required to participate in the count and enter their projects into the HMIS.

Categorized by three Program Types:

• Emergency Shelter
• Transitional Housing
• Safe Haven - There are no HUD defined Safe Haven project types in Vermont

Housing Inventory Count (HIC)

A point-in-time inventory of provider programs within a Continuum of Care that provide beds and units dedicated to serve people experiencing homelessness and, for permanent housing projects, were homeless at entry, per the HUD homeless definition. 

Categorized by six Program Types:

• Emergency Shelter 
• Transitional Housing
• Rapid Re-housing
• Safe Haven - There are no HUD defined Safe Haven project types in Vermont
• Permanent Supportive Housing
• Other Permanent Housing

Timelines and Due Dates  

2026 Point-In-Time (PIT) and Housing Inventory Count (HIC) has a very tight and strict timeline.  

Point In Time (PIT) Timeline:

• Thursday, January 29, 2026: ICA runs the first round of PIT reports and sends reports to agencies for initial review.
• Wednesday, February 4, 2026: Deadline - All PIT data must be entered into HMIS.
• Thursday, February 5, 2026: ICA runs updated PIT reports and sends reports to agencies.
  • Agencies will be notified if issues are identified.  
  • If no issues are identified, agencies will be asked to confirm their data.
• Wednesday, February 11, 2026: Deadline - All corrections from the February 5th review must be completed in HMIS.
• Thursday, February 12, 2026: ICA runs PIT reports and sends the results to agencies for final confirmation.

• Thursday, January 29, 2026: PIT data collection begins. Agencies may begin entering data into Google Forms for ES and TH* or HMIS for the Unsheltered Count.
• Thursday, February 5, 2026: Deadline - All PIT interviews should be completed and ready for entry.
• Thursday, February 12, 2026: Deadline - All PIT data must be entered into Google Forms for ES and TH* or HMIS for the Unsheltered Count.

*ICA will be in communication with you if you are entering ES or TH data into the google forms. All other data will be entered and reported on through the HMIS.  

Housing Inventory Count (HIC) Timeline:

HMIS Due Dates:

• Monday, February 9, 2026: ICA runs the first round of HIC reports.
• When the reports are complete, ICA then sends reports to agencies for review.
• Friday, February 13, 2026: Deadline - All HIC data must be entered into HMIS.
• Monday, February 16, 2026: Agencies receive updated HIC reports.
  • Agencies with errors will be contacted directly by ICA.  
  • Agencies without errors will be asked to confirm their data.
• Thursday, February 19, 2026: Deadline - All HIC corrections must be completed and confirmed.
• Friday, February 20, 2026: ICA sends HIC reports to agencies for final confirmation.

Non-HMIS Due Dates:

• Monday, February 9, 2026: ICA will send the 2026 HIC template
• Friday, February 13, 2026: Deadline - All HIC data must be collected
• Thursday, February 19, 2026: Deadline – All HIC templates must be submitted to ICA

Additional Notes:

• Bed Inventory Collection:
  • All agencies will also receive an email from ICA staff to gather program information to confirm things like; funding source, bed numbers, address, start dates, etc.
  • This information is gathered each year to make sure that the CoC is reporting the most accurate program information.
• Final Submission Notes:
  • In March 2026 ICA will be compiling all the data from the different data sources - HMIS, Non-HMIS/Google Forms and DV Data documents, to create the combined PIT data that is needed to submit to HUD for each HUD CoC.
    • HIC reports and the PIT data will be used to populate the HIC portion of the required data submission to HUD. 
    • Warnings and Errors in the HUD database will be addressed during this time as well.
    • Please be aware that ICA staff may be contacting you to ask questions to help with this work.
    • We will also have limited available time to schedule calls with providers in order to get all this work done.

Resources:

2026 PIT/HIC Trainings/Resources:

• VT Statewide HMIS PIT and HIC Training (Recorded Training)
  • VT HMIS PIT and HIC Training Power Point (PDF) 
  • VT HMIS PIT Data Analysis Report Instructions (PDF)
  • VT HMIS HIC Guidance and Reporting Instructions (PDF)

• 2026 PIT Paper Survey (PDF) 
  • VT BoS Emergency Shelter - if you are in need of this form, please contact VT ICA
  • VT BoS Transitional Housing - if you are in need of this form, please contact VT ICA
• Unsheltered Training (Recorded Training)
  • Unsheltered PIT Paper Survey (PDF)
  • Unsheltered Training Power Point (PDF)
  • Unsheltered Data Entry Workflow Guide (PDF)
    • If you need access to the HMIS Unsheltered Agency, please email the VT Help Desk.

• For the link to join office hours, please email the VT Help Desk

HHAV Website PIT Pages: 

• HHAV PIT Home Page
• HHAV PIT Unsheltered Count

Please note that the VT Chittenden PIT/HIC resources are located here.

If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to your VT HMIS System Administrators; vthmis@icalliances.org

Copyright 2025 Institute for Community Alliances. All rights reserved.