The Street Count is a visual enumeration of homeless individuals, families and youth who are in the streets, vehicles, abandoned buildings, parks and campgrounds, wilderness areas, and makeshift shelters such as tents and encampments.

The County of Los Angeles covers approximately 4,000 square miles. The logistics for conducting a point-in-time street count of homeless people in a County this large required the enumeration to take place over a three-night period. The unsheltered and sheltered homeless counts are coordinated to occur within the same time period as a means to minimize potential duplicate counting.

The point-in-time Street Count was conducted on January 23, 24, and 25, 2007 from approximately 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Census enumerators (volunteers and paid homeless workers) canvassed 505 U.S. Census Tracts over the three-night period. Two Hundred and thirty five (235) tracts were selected for enumeration based on prior knowledge of homeless encampments. The remaining 270 tracts were randomly selected from the 1,651 census tracts (1,886 census tracts in the City and County of Los Angeles, less the 235 specifically enumerated) that lie within Los Angeles County's CoC, excluding the cities of Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach. The statistical selection process was designed to provide a 5% confidence interval for the count Countywide. Pasadena, Glendale and Long Beach manage separate Continuum of Cares and conduct their own homeless counts.

During the same days, the Homeless Youth Street Count was conducted during the day from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Homeless Youth Street Count utilized youth under the age of 18 who were homeless or formerly homeless. This piece of the Street Count was a collaborative effort with the Hollywood Homeless Youth Project who assisted in providing (1) hot spots to enumerate, (2) homeless youth to serve as guides, and (3) transportation to canvass the different Service Planning Areas.