Each year, communities across the country participate in the Point-in-Time (PIT) Count and the Housing Inventory Count (HIC). These processes are designed to measure homelessness and housing capacity, and the data collected is used by government agencies to guide funding, policy, and planning decisions.
For many years, Medford Gospel Mission has participated in these counts in good faith. We believed that by cooperating, we were contributing to the common good of our community and helping others better understand the scope of homelessness in Southern Oregon.
Over time, however, our perspective has changed.
Counting Without Changing
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, homelessness has increased nationwide for multiple consecutive years, even as public spending has reached historic levels. Despite repeated counts, reports, and policy shifts, the number of people living without shelter continues to grow.
The PIT Count is not simply a neutral headcount. It requires people experiencing homelessness to answer deeply personal questions about addiction, mental health, sexual identity, victimization, and the length of their homelessness. These questions are asked year after year, often by strangers, with little visible benefit to the individual being surveyed.
Many of the men and women we serve have told us that the process feels dehumanizing. They are asked to relive painful experiences without receiving real help in return. After decades of this process, discouragement and apathy are understandable outcomes.
A Question That Is Never Asked
At Medford Gospel Mission, we ask a different question—one that never appears on a PIT survey:
“What is your relationship with God?”
We ask this because we believe homelessness is not only a material crisis, but a spiritual and relational one. Broken relationships—with God, with others, and with oneself—are often at the root of the suffering we see every day. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, and lasting change flows from restored hearts and lives, not from statistics.
The Issue of Reciprocity
There is another reason for our decision, one that is less often spoken about but deeply felt: reciprocity.
For decades, Medford Gospel Mission has shown up for our community. We have shared food, clothing, meals, facilities, time, staff, and experience. We have supported other organizations, opened our doors to their clients, served on committees, joined work groups, and contributed wherever we could—often without recognition or return.
Healthy relationships are built on mutual respect and reciprocity. Giving without expectation is virtuous, but when relationships become consistently one‑sided—where one party is expected to give, comply, report, and adjust, while receiving little support, understanding, or consideration in return—it becomes necessary to pause and reevaluate.
Participation in the PIT and HIC processes increasingly feels like one more instance of this imbalance. We are asked to give our time, data, credibility, and cooperation to systems and structures that do not meaningfully support or reflect our mission, values, or approach to ministry. In many cases, the relationship flows in only one direction.
Stepping away is not a rejection of our community. It is an honest acknowledgment that not all collaboration is healthy, and not all cooperation is reciprocal.
Why We Are Stepping Away
After prayerful reflection and careful consideration, Medford Gospel Mission has decided to no longer participate in the PIT Count or the Housing Inventory Count.
This decision is not made lightly, nor is it directed at individuals who continue to participate. Rather, it reflects our conviction that:
- Repeated counting has not produced meaningful, lasting change
- The data collected is increasingly disconnected from real outcomes
- The process often dehumanizes the very people it claims to serve
- Participation reinforces systems that manage homelessness rather than resolve it
- Our relationships within these systems lack reciprocity
Our time, energy, and voice are better invested directly in life‑on‑life ministry that brings restoration, accountability, and hope.
A Better Way Forward
The state of poverty in our community is not hopeless. Every day we witness lives being changed through faith, responsibility, and genuine relationship. These transformations do not happen because someone was counted—they happen because someone was known, loved, and challenged to change.
By God’s grace, Medford Gospel Mission will continue to reach the lost and gather the reached. We will continue to serve our community generously, freely, and faithfully—while also setting wise boundaries that protect our mission and values.
Real hope does not come from counting people. It comes from loving them.
Partner with us in God’s work of relational restoration.