Hold onto your iPhones, folks! In what is essentially a yearly census of urban survival, Santa Clara County is about to conduct its biannual homelessness count – but this isn’t your grandma’s counting; they’re going high-tech!

Yes, this week, nearly 600 enthusiastic volunteers are gearing up to stretch their legs and count the folks without homes across Santa Clara County. (Who needs a cardio fitness app when you can walk around counting unhoused neighbors?) Armed with a shiny new app, these volunteers will track and collect data on the unsheltered – using technology because, apparently, just counting people with a clipboard is sooo last decade.

KJ Kaminski, the director of Supportive Housing—and likely the one who had to wrestle with tech support to get this up and running—expressed gratitude to the foot soldiers of this community-wide initiative. “We’re so grateful to everybody who has signed up. It’s huge that we have trained volunteers ready to gather info using our new gadgets!” The excitement is palpable, but let’s stop to ponder why such a drastic counting method is necessary: last year, the Bay Area saw nearly 39,000 homeless individuals, with Santa Clara County housing an eyebrow-raising 9,903 of them. (Yikes!)

But what’s a count without some good old-fashioned controversy? Advocates have already voiced a belief that reality check-ups will reveal even more grim numbers—something that makes us wonder if ‘point in time’ should really be named ‘point in denial.’ Kaminski, while acknowledging the complexity, has the biggest sweet spot of all: “What we want to know isn’t so much how many we can tally up, but why are they homeless and how can we use our resources better to actually help them?”

Enter the app, cheekily dubbed Counting Us, which beams data in real-time back to headquarters. No, it won’t solve world hunger, but it should help pin down where the need is most desperate. As Ray Bramson of Destination Home puts it, demographic info from the app is pivotal. If we start spotting a trend of seniors rolling around looking for the nearest soup kitchen, we can pivot our focus to help them find stable living. Because, you know, California does have a bit of a knack for setting its own trends, especially the kind no one wants.

As if that’s not enough, this year’s count is being bolstered by a record number of paid volunteers with lived experience of being unhoused. Because we always rave about the need for authentic voices in discussions, right? Let’s just hope that with all these advancements, the only shelter left uncounted is the one in our hearts.