This dashboard shows trends in the number of people experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness from 2021 to the present.

What is this dashboard about?

This dashboard displays: 1) the number of people who were active in an emergency shelter program per night dating back to January 2019, as well as basic demographic information on race, gender, and age; and 2) the number of people known to be experiencing unsheltered homelessness based on their engagement with street outreach teams. 

What data is available?

Emergency shelter data comes from the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and is updated daily. Unsheltered homelessness data comes from a document used to facilitate coordination between local street outreach teams and is updated weekly. 

Those active in local domestic violence emergency shelters are not represented in this dashboard, as domestic violence emergency shelters do not report usage in HMIS. These shelters have the capacity to serve approximately 100 clients per day.

The dashboard below provides information about Allegheny County Jail population management, including the daily jail population, population in alternative housing, bookings and releases, and lengths of stay. Data is available from 2018 to the present and is updated daily.

Trouble viewing the dashboard? You can view it directly here.

As the COVID-19 situation is rapidly changing, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) is working with providers to help identify the needs of the people we serve. We cannot predict what the future of the outbreak might be, but we are striving to continue to help people who need it most. Information for our providers will be updated on this page as it becomes available.

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For those who cannot make the call, we will post presentation materials and video recordings of the calls.

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To register for meeting invitations and additional correspondence regarding COVID-19 and Allegheny County Human Services: Survey Link

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Please indicate in the Subject Line whether your question or concern is related to Children, Youth and Families, Aging, Behavioral Health, Intellectual Disability, Community Services, or DHS operations (e.g., contracting, payment, etc.).

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The Allegheny Family Screening Tool (AFST) is a predictive risk model designed to improve decision-making in Allegheny County’s child welfare system. The tool utilizes hundreds of data elements to predict the likelihood that a child referred for abuse or neglect will later experience a foster care placement. The AFST provides additional information – in conjunction with clinical judgement – to assist child welfare workers making a call screening decision.

After a multi-year process that included rigorous research, community feedback, and independent ethical review, Version 1 of the AFST started being used by call screeners in August 2016. Findings from an independent impact evaluation and a commitment to continuous improvement of the tool led to a rollout of Version 2 in December 2018 that updated the algorithm, data sources, and associated policies.

View a comprehensive packet on the AFST that provides all of the County’s published research and partner evaluations to date or select from the following documents:

• Methodology of the AFST
  • • • Version 2 (April 2019)
      • Version 1 (April 2017)
• Evaluations of the AFST, Version 1
  • • • Impact Evaluation Summary and Full Impact Evaluation (April 2019)
      • Process Evaluation (January 2018)
      • Ethical Analysis and Response to Ethical Analysis (April 2017)
• Frequently-Asked Questions

Click here to access recent press coverage of the AFST.

When removing a child from home is necessary, a stable foster home is the preferred placement option; unfortunately, adolescents and teenagers are much less likely to find such a home and often end up in group homes or other congregate settings.  The Families for Teens initiative, funded by the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is designed to increase the number and quality of foster homes for these older youth through a variety of collaborative, training, support and marketing strategies.

Click here to view the full report. 

Content and analysis: Sanjeev Baidyaroy, Emily Kulick and Katherine Stoehr

An involuntary commitment is an application for emergency evaluation and treatment for a person who is considered to be a danger to self or others due to symptoms of a mental illness. In Allegheny County, petitions for involuntary commitment are managed and authorized by the Department of Human Services (DHS), through its Mental Health Information, Referral and Emergency Services (IRES) 24-hour phone line.

This report presents an analysis of all involuntary commitment petitions received by DHS from 2002 through 2013, during which time petitions were filed on 37,750 individuals, most commonly involving teens and young adults. African Americans experienced higher rates at almost every age and men experienced higher rates than women of the same race.

Click here to read the full report.

Click here to view a related data visualization.