A count of homeless people in the region this year shows the number of homeless families in Hampshire County doubling over 2023, and overall homeless numbers at their highest in at least five years.

The annual Point-in-Time count, a national initiative set up by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, found 312 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the county in January.

Numbers had been rising steadily since a recent low of 210 in 2021, but jumped in 2024 from 240 last year. The study counted 58 homeless people in families in 2023, and 115 this year.

In Franklin County, the homeless population has more than doubled in the last year, the study found. There were 252 people sleeping in shelters or outside, compared to 104 in January 2023.

In western Massachusetts — defined as Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties — the report counted 3,862 homeless people Jan. 31, compared to 3,305 in 2023.

“There’s no area where there isn’t an increase: unsheltered, individual and family, they’re all rising,” said Pamela Schwartz, director of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness. “That’s the reality we’re staring at.”

The number, Schwartz added, is “most definitely an undercount” as HUD’s definition of homeless does not include people who are sleeping on friends’ and family’s couches on a temporary basis or other similar arrangements.

Of the 20 unsheltered homeless individuals counted in Hampshire County, 13 were in Northampton, six were in Amherst and one was in Hadley.

Part of the huge spike in Franklin County numbers is a result of the Haitian immigrants staying in shelters operated by ServiceNet in Greenfield. The inclusion of immigrants in the data explains disparities in the race and ethnicity and age demographics included in the data.

In 2023, just 6% of those counted in Franklin County were Black or African American and 24 people were 18 or younger. This year’s data show 56% of people counted were Black or African American and 82 homeless individuals were children. The number of homeless families skyrocketed from 42 to 171 in that same time frame, as well.

Hampshire County shows a similar if less dramatic trend. Hispanic or Latino people comprised one-third of the homeless population in 2024, compared to 28.8% in 2023, while the proportion of Black individuals rose from 16.3% to 19.2%.

The number of homeless children rose from 35 to 60. Increases were seen in all age groups except those 65 and older, where the number dropped from 35 to 22.

Other driving factors behind the increased number of homeless people include rising rents, lack of affordable housing, opioid addiction and the mental health or substance-use crises exacerbated by the pandemic. The 2024 count showed 95% of Hampshire County’s unsheltered homeless population with serious mental health challenges.

“If there’s any person with a constellation of that, you’re in real trouble,” Schwartz said. “The good news is we do know what works in response to homelessness.”

“We know that housing-first works, which means no barriers to housing,” she added. “Good policies and adequate resources make a difference; they are a real solution.”

Initiatives Schwartz and the network are targeting include the sealing of eviction records — which still show up in the database even if the tenant wins; support for the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which gives the first right of purchase to a tenant; allowing accessory dwelling units by right; repealing the ban on local rent control; and a program to provide legal counsel to tenants who may be facing eviction.

Some of these provisions were included in the $5.4 billion housing bill approved last week by the Senate.

“We know what works and we need to do more of it,” Schwartz said. “We need the political will to do it.”

The homeless numbers were discussed at the eighth annual gathering of the network in May.

At that meeting, Springfield director of housing Gerry McCafferty said the number of homeless families in the four western counties increased by 46% over the past three years, while rents spiked by 31% since 2020 in Berkshire County and by 23.3% in the other three western counties.

The point-in-time count of unsheltered people in the four counties (on Jan. 31 this year, McCafferty said) was 259, up by 224% since 2021, when pandemic assistance was available. Eviction filings have risen from 787 to 1,302 per quarter over the last 12 months.

“One of the greatest consequences of our ongoing housing crisis has been the rise of homelessness,” Housing Secretary Ed Augustus said in a statement.

Augustus said the answer to people being priced or squeezed out of housing in Massachusetts starts with building more housing to meet the demand and to lower costs for everyone.

“And it continues with important changes like giving access to legal counsel to low-income tenants and owner occupants in eviction proceedings,” he stated.

HUD’s homelessness count is used to determine the greatest needs for homeless people with and without shelter.

Nationally, regions within each state are broken up into a Continuum of Care (CoC), where organizations work together to survey homeless populations and offer them resources, such as sleeping bags, backpacks or warm clothing.

Western Massachusetts is broken up into the Berkshire-Franklin-Hampshire Three County CoC — the largest geographic CoC in the state — and the Hampden County CoC.