Colorado’s most recent statewide Point-in-Time count, conducted in January 2024, found 18,715 people experiencing homelessness on a single night. That is a 30% jump from the 14,439 counted a year earlier and roughly 90% higher than in 2020. A full statewide 2025 total was not yet available at the time of writing, but regional 2025 counts suggest the number has kept climbing: the Denver metro area alone reached 10,774.
The Latest Statewide and Regional Numbers
The January 2023 PIT count found 14,439 people experiencing homelessness across Colorado, a 39% increase over 2022 and the fourth-largest percentage jump of any state that year. The January 2024 count rose to 18,715. Family homelessness drove much of that increase, with 8,519 people in families counted in 2024, up from 3,641 the year before.
Regional 2025 results point in the same direction. The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative counted 10,774 people in its seven-county region, up from 9,997 in 2024.1Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Press Release – Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Releases 2025 Point-in-Time Count Data El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs, counted 1,745 people in 2025, a 34% increase from 2024. Colorado Springs itself had reported 1,146 people in 2024, which city officials described at the time as a nine-year low.2City of Colorado Springs. Mayor Yemi Releases Statement on Annual Point in Time Count Showing Reduction in Homelessness That reduction did not hold at the county level a year later.
Why the Real Number Is Higher
The Point-in-Time count is a snapshot of one cold January night, and it consistently undercounts the actual homeless population. People sleeping in cars, doubling up with friends, or staying in motels often get missed. Those who avoid shelters and outreach workers, out of distrust or fear, do not show up in the data either. The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which conducts the Denver metro count, cautions against treating any single year’s PIT figure as a precise measurement.3Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Point in Time Count
Other data sources show how far the PIT count falls short. Education data collected under the McKinney-Vento Act identified roughly 18,000 students experiencing homelessness in Colorado during the 2021–2022 school year, a figure that by itself exceeded the entire statewide PIT count for that period. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has estimated that the true number of people without stable housing falls somewhere between the PIT count and 134,197, the number of individuals lacking stable housing enrolled in Medicaid. In 2024, MDHI released a statewide report estimating that over 52,000 people in Colorado needed help with housing that year.
How Colorado Gets to the Number
The Point-in-Time count is a federal requirement from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. On a single night during the last ten days of January, volunteers and outreach workers count people sleeping in shelters, transitional housing, and unsheltered locations such as streets, vehicles, and encampments.4HUD.gov. 2024 HIC and PIT Data Collection Notice HUD requires Continuums of Care, the regional planning bodies that coordinate homeless services, to conduct the count at least every two years, and most Colorado CoCs do it annually.5HUD Exchange. Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory Count
Four Continuums of Care divide the state: the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative covering seven counties around Denver, the Pikes Peak CoC covering El Paso County, the Northern Colorado CoC covering Larimer and Weld counties, and the Balance of State CoC covering the remaining rural and smaller urban areas.
Where Homelessness Concentrates
The Denver metro area holds most of the state’s counted homeless population. MDHI’s seven-county region accounted for 10,054 of the 14,439 people counted statewide in 2023, roughly two-thirds of the total, and reached 10,774 in 2025.1Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Press Release – Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Releases 2025 Point-in-Time Count Data
The Pikes Peak region is the second-largest concentration, with 1,745 people counted in El Paso County in 2025. Northern Colorado’s Larimer and Weld counties counted 882 people in 2023. The Balance of State CoC, covering Colorado’s rural and smaller urban communities, reported 2,201 people that same year. Rural homelessness is harder to see and harder to count: people are more likely to be living in vehicles, abandoned buildings, or camping on public land, and services are farther away. Boulder’s July 2025 point-in-time count found at least 140 people sleeping outside within city limits.
Who Is Being Counted
Families
Family homelessness has grown faster than any other segment. The number of people in families more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, rising from 3,641 to 8,519, a 134% increase. About three-quarters of the overall homeless population are individuals without children, but the pace of family growth has drawn particular concern from service providers.
Youth
In the 2023 count, roughly 16% of people experiencing homelessness were children under 18, and about 5% were young adults between 18 and 24. Those shares almost certainly understate youth homelessness, since young people are among the hardest groups to count. They are more likely to couch-surf, stay with acquaintances, or avoid adult shelters entirely.
Veterans
Veterans make up a meaningful share of the counted population. In El Paso County’s 2025 count, about one in ten people experiencing homelessness were veterans.
Racial Disparities
Black and African American Coloradans are dramatically overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, making up a share of the counted population several times their proportion of the state’s general population. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander individuals face even steeper disparities.
Mental Health and Substance Use
According to PIT count data, roughly 31% of people experiencing homelessness in Colorado reported a mental health condition, and about 24% reported problems with chronic substance use. Data from the state’s Homeless Management Information System, which tracks people over time rather than on a single night, shows higher rates: 44% reporting mental health issues and 43% reporting substance use problems.
A Decade of Growth
The statewide PIT count rose from 9,754 in 2013 to 14,439 in 2023, and then jumped again to 18,715 in 2024. Between 2020 and 2024, the homeless population grew by approximately 90%, the fourth-highest growth rate of any state in the country.
Chronic homelessness, which HUD defines as a person with a disability who has been continuously homeless for at least 12 months or has experienced four or more episodes of homelessness in three years, increased by 150% over the decade ending in 2023, rising from 1,780 to 4,457 people.6eCFR. 24 CFR 91.5 – Definitions Homelessness in the Denver metro area rose 58% between 2016 and 2023. MDHI noted that while its 2025 total continued rising, the rate of increase slowed compared to the sharp jumps in 2022 and 2023.1Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Press Release – Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Releases 2025 Point-in-Time Count Data
What Is Pushing the Numbers Up
Housing costs are the dominant factor. Over a third of Colorado households are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. Among renters, more than half are cost-burdened, and a quarter are severely burdened, spending over 50% of their income on rent. In 2022, the median monthly rent in Colorado was $1,650, which by itself represented nearly 33% of the median household income.
The state is also short an estimated 175,240 affordable housing units for families earning at or below 50% of the area median income. People at the bottom of the income ladder compete for a shrinking pool of affordable apartments, and those who lose out can end up on the street.
Finding Help
People experiencing homelessness or at risk of losing their housing can reach Colorado’s 211 system by dialing 2-1-1 or calling (866) 760-6489. Texting a ZIP code to 898-211 or using the live chat at 211colorado.org also connects people to navigators who can help locate emergency shelters, transitional housing, domestic violence shelters, extreme weather shelters, motel vouchers, and permanent supportive housing programs.7211 Colorado. Housing and Shelter Each CoC region also operates a coordinated entry system, a single intake process that assesses a person’s needs and matches them with available services. Wait times can be long, particularly for housing vouchers, which often involve waitlists stretching from months to years.