On any given night, there are around 16,385 people experiencing homelessness in King County, report finds
KING COUNTY, Wash. - A new Unsheltered Point-In-Time (PIT) Count found that over 16,000 people experience homelessness in King County on any given night.
The PIT count is required every other year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to effectively allocate federal funds to work to end homelessness regionally.
However, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) said that those can often be an undercount.
KCRHA conducted both an unsheltered and sheltered PIT Count in January 2024, along with the required Housing Inventory Count (HIC) of emergency shelter beds and certain types of housing units.
The data was collected from Jan. 22 to Feb. 2 and was analyzed from Feb. 2 to April 30.
That count found that on any given night in King County, there are an estimated 16,385 individuals experiencing homelessness. This is 23% higher than the 2022 PIT estimate, which when adjusted for population growth during the same period, represents a 12% increase over changes expected due to population increase, according to KCRHA.
"Homelessness continues to disproportionately affect communities of color in King County. Based on the PIT analyses, 19% of people experiencing homelessness in King County identify as Black/African American, but according to the 2020 U.S. Census only 6% of King County’s population identifies as Black/African American. Similarly, 7% of people experiencing homelessness identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Indigenous, but that group makes up only 1% of King County’s population," KCHRA said of their study.
Prior to 2022, the unsheltered PIT was conducted by volunteers one night in January, using a census and survey. The PIT is widely understood to be an undercount, especially as it represents a single night rather than a full year.
This year, KCRHA changed its count methodology to remove possible undercounting. Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) has been shown to be effective in reaching people who are not already connected to services, providing a data point that supplements client data in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) and other systems.
"This methodology has a strong track record for producing high-quality demographic and population estimates, confirmed by numerous studies by academic researchers and the World Health Organization," KCRHA said.
You can view a summary of the report below. Mobile users can tap here.
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The final report will be available to the public by July 31, 2024, via the KCRHA website, and KCRHA will host a community forum for further discussion.
