Homeless Numbers In SnoCo Highest Since 2012

EVERETT, WA — More than 1,000 people, including nearly 200 kids, identified as homeless for the Snohomish County Human Services Department's annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count, which was conducted in late January with the help of 288 volunteers.

In its 2019 report, released this week, the county identified a total of 1,116 people as either sheltered or unsheltered homeless in communities across the county. The total number of people counted is the highest since the 2012 PIT count and 34 percent greater than the county's lowest PIT count in 2015, which reported 829 people as homeless.

Required by state and federal funding sources, the annual PIT count provides city, county, and state leaders with data to help identify the needs of local homeless individuals and create programs to prevent and reduce homelessness across Washington.

The annual PIT count, conducted this year on Jan. 23, includes folks who sleep in emergency shelters and transitional housing as well as those who literally sleep on the street, in parks, or along highways.

Volunteers reportedly counted 599 people who were considered "unsheltered," living in abandoned buildings (22), in vehicles (280), or on the street (297). Of those considered unsheltered, 56 percent are men, 42.9 percent are women, and 0.8 percent identify as gender neutral; nearly 74 percent identified as white/caucasian.

Twenty-eight families, composed of 42 adults and 48 kids, were counted among the unsheltered homeless; so too were 35 veterans.

"Due to the fact that the unsheltered count relies on volunteer survey takers who visit encampments, food banks, community resources locations, and known areas where people experiencing homelessness congregate, the methodology is prone to undercounting families experiencing homelessness," county officials said in a statement. "To mitigate that issue, Snohomish County leveraged data from Coordinated Entry, a system that is utilized to assist people experiencing homelessness."

The change reportedly resulted in an observed increase among people counted as unsheltered, "particularly for families who accounted for 21.5 percent of the navigator surveys, but only 2.4 percent of the street and service based surveys," officials explained.

"The overall increase in homelessness seen in this year’s PIT Count parallels an increase in the number of individuals and families seeking and receiving housing services through the county-wide homelessness response system," officials said.

Among the 517 people counted as sheltered homeless, 406 said they were living in emergency shelters while 111 said they were living in transitional housing. Of those individuals, 47 percent are men, 52 percent are women, and 0.4 percent identify as gender neutral.

Twenty-three veterans and 77 families, composed of 94 adults and 151 kids, were counted as sheltered, with the majority (58.5 percent) identifying as white/caucasian.

"While an imperfect measure, the PIT Count is one of the tools used to inform priorities for federal, state, and local funding, and it helps identify trends and craft solutions for addressing the needs of vulnerable individuals and families," officials said. "The analysis and overall trend data are utilized by the Snohomish County Partnership to End Homelessness as one of many tools to track progress toward goals to prevent, reduce, and end homelessness."

For more data charts and information on this year's PIT count, as well as information on resources available through Snohomish County and its partner organizations for people experiencing homelessness, visit SnohomishCountyWA.gov.

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