Arapahoe County’s annual Point in Time homeless count shows a rise in homelessness, but officials say the county’s prevention efforts show “significant success” regardless.

The county’s count of homeless people, which happens on a single day in January each year, showed an 11% increase to 285 people in Arapahoe County excluding those in Aurora city limits, according to a press release from the county Thursday.

Any increase in homelessness is a “serious concern,” according to the release, but county officials said their efforts to reduce homelessness are still having positive results — with the growth rate in homelessness slowing down significantly this year as compared to last year. 

“Our data tells a story of both challenge and hope,” Board Chair Leslie Summey said in the release. “We’re seeing our prevention strategies work — newly-homeless individuals decreased by 18%, and unsheltered homelessness dropped by 22%. These aren’t just statistics; these numbers represent real people whose lives have been stabilized through our community’s coordinated efforts.”

County officials are investing in eviction prevention, including rental assistance, short-term placement, inclement weather sheltering, housing navigation and legal aid, according to the release. 

The county has also expanded shelter access through the Homelessness Awareness and Action Task Force and county officials are hopeful that Aurora’s Regional Navigation Campus will help when it opens later this year. 

In the next two years, four new affordable housing projects centered on family needs are scheduled to open across the county, officials noted.

There are also several “alarming” trends in the data, the press release said, including a surge in family homelessness and homelessness among seniors and people reporting disabilities.

“These numbers underscore that while our prevention efforts are working, we must dramatically expand our capacity to serve families and seniors,” Summey said. “The complexity of barriers our residents face — from disabilities to domestic violence — requires comprehensive, trauma-informed responses that go far beyond traditional shelter models.”

Arapahoe County’s Community Resources director Katherine Smith said the prevention strategies are working, but the scale of need “demands that we think bigger and act faster.”

“We’re not just managing homelessness,” Smith said in the release. “We’re building the infrastructure to prevent and alleviate it.”