On a single night every January， volunteers all over America search parks， woodlands， subway tunnels and pavements to count those without shelter. It is part of the annual count mandated by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The point-in-time count results were released， at last， on December 15th. Roughly 650，000 people were homeless， a 12 % increase over the year before. The count is the highest since reporting began in 2007. The snapshot is useful for spotting trends and attracting federal funding. Most experts agree it is an undercount and often out of date.
