There were 35,601 people homeless last year in metro Denver, compared with 36,065 in 2024, a drop of 1.3%, according to a statewide report by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative released Monday.

Meanwhile, homelessness in El Paso County grew between 2024 and 2025 at a rate faster than any other part of Colorado, according to “Colorado’s State of Homelessness Report 2025.”

The report shows 7,078 people in El Paso County were counted as homeless at some point last year.

That’s a 4.3% jump from the first survey compiled in 2024 by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, the administrator for the Colorado Homeless Management Information System, when 6,787 people in El Paso County were considered homeless.

The homeless population fell by 1.3% in Northern Colorado’s coverage area and by 5.4% in the remainder of the state, which covers 54 rural counties.

Statewide, 53,776 people were homeless in Colorado last year, representing a 0.7% decrease over 2024, which, report said, “underscores the effectiveness of current housing strategies and programs.”

In total, agencies provided homelessness assistance services to 84,425 people statewide, a 3.7% increase that report organizers said, “reflects our expanded efforts to catch households before they fall into crisis and with supports successfully staying housed.”

The Pikes Peak Continuum of Care is the only one of the state’s four Continuums of Care — geographically based and government-funded agencies that coordinate housing and services for local homeless people — to see its homeless population increase year-over-year.

Whether it’s an actual increase in numbers or reflective of better efforts to count people who are traditionally not counted, the population jump makes sense, said Kristy Milligan, CEO of Westside CARES, a consortium of churches and other faith-based institutions that provides assistance.

“Over the last 12 months, the Pikes Peak region has seen a dwindling of tenant-based vouchers, a loss of prevention resources, a loss of other safety-net supports and an increase in enforcement,” she said. “These enforcement efforts entangle people in the criminal justice system, and that entanglement makes it even harder for them to find housing.”

As a result, small organizations like Westside CARES have had dramatic increases for requests to help people avoid eviction or escape homelessness, she said.

The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative received $30,000 for 2024 and another $30,000 for 2025 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to produce the report, Executive Director Jason Johnson said.

The outcome is to “ensure the public, funders and those conducting the work accurately understand the scale of homelessness in our state and to serve as a marker of progress,” he said via email.

“These numbers are showing exactly what we hoped, our collaborative Continuum of Care efforts are showing significant measurable improvement in Colorado’s housing stability,” Tyler Jaeckel, director of Colorado’s housing division, said in a statement.

Overall last year, nearly 27,500 Coloradans attained or maintained housing stability through prevention methods, permanent housing or otherwise leaving homelessness, which is attributed to more availability of housing and support services, the report said.

The size of the homeless population is difficult to calculate, since it’s often transitory and many people remain untraceable, those working in the industry said.

Thus, different studies show widely varying numbers.

Last year’s Point-in-Time and Housing Inventory Count, a federally mandated census of how many people did not have stable housing on a given night in January, hit a record high of 1,745 people in El Paso County. That was a 52% year-over-year increase. But it doesn’t count homeless people in hospitals, jails and treatment centers.

The new report incorporates the Point-in-Time results along with numbers from the Colorado Homeless Management Information System, which tracks people who use services, such as emergency shelters, soup kitchens and drop-in centers.

Homeless students in public schools who are reported to the U.S. Department of Education also are included.

Organizers said the new report presents a more complete scope of the situation.

Beth Roalstad, CEO of Homeward Pikes Peak, an organization that provides street outreach to homeless people, supportive housing, addiction treatment and other programs, said that the new data is a more accurate reflection of reality.

The population boost might be attributed to new work in the community, she said.

Roalstad said she also agrees with the report’s calls to action that include expanding permanent housing, which she said is “the best intervention to stabilize households.”

“While our permanent housing programs achieved an 82.1% housing stability rate, the primary limitation remains the availability of housing units. The system is performing at a high level; scaling the solution is the next essential step,” the report said.

Protecting existing housing programs and increasing prevention and early intervention efforts also are cited as being necessary to reduce homelessness, according to the report.

“We’ve learned through Homeward Pikes Peak’s street outreach that it’s very effective to get people connected with resources such as shelters, detox and behavioral health, and expand prevention through rental and utility assistance programs,” Roalstad said. “Keeping people housed is the least costly way to prevent homelessness.”