(The Center Square) – According to data, an overwhelming majority of homeless people in the Seattle-King County area in Washington state are not originally from the area, but the high costs of living in the region could be a factor in their becoming homeless.
The Seattle-based public policy think tank Discovery Institute conducted a spring 2024 survey of people living in both temporary shelters and transitional housing in Seattle. The survey found that 49.7% of people first began experiencing homelessness outside of Seattle or King County and 86.6% were not born outside of the region.
Caitlyn McKenney, research fellow and program coordinator for Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, co-authored the report with former U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness Director Robert Marbut.
In an email to The Center Square, McKenney said they “expect the unsheltered/street-level population to have an even higher rate of out-of-towners” based on similar surveys Marbut administered.
The Discovery Institute report, based on the survey, recommends that long-term services be offered only to homeless people who have long-term, direct connections to Seattle. For this system to work, all service agencies and nonprofit organizations that provide services within Seattle would need to adopt this eligibility criterion.
The think tank does not recommend that unhoused people not originally from the King County region be left alone. Instead, homeless people with no direct connection to the region would only be allowed access to short-term emergency services and case management services for family reunification.
Statistics from the federally mandated Point-in-Time Count show that the homeless population had stable housing at one point while living in King County, resulting in questions as to how it is they became homeless.
The PIT Count is used by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority and other government entities to keep track of the region’s homeless. PIT statistics are widely acknowledged to be an undercount.
The last time the area’s homeless were asked about where they used to live before becoming homeless was in 2019, when 84% of respondents reported living in King County immediately prior to losing their housing. Only 11% of survey respondents lived in another Washington county before losing their housing, and 5% lived out of state.
More than half – 52% – of survey respondents reported living in Seattle when they became homeless, followed by Renton at 6%.
Since 2019, the area’s homeless crisis has only gotten worse, having increased by 46% to 16,385 people experiencing homelessness in King County in 2024.
King County has identified affordable housing as a top priority, noting that 70% of low-income households in King County spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2023.
Furthermore, it is estimated that there are only 23 units of affordable housing for every 100 low-income households in King County.
It’s not just homeless people moving into King County.
The state Office of Financial Management found that the state’s total population grew by an estimated 84,550 in April 2024. King County has consistently been the main contributor to the state’s overall population growth, adding 30,100 people in all of 2023, compared to an average of 33,800 people per year between 2010 and 2020.
OFM has yet to release population statistics from 2024.
The Center Square contacted the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for comment on the Discovery Institute’s findings and recommendations but did not receive a reply.
The Center Square also reached out to the region’s largest homeless service and supportive housing providers, including the Downtown Emergency Service Center, Mary’s Place, Low Income Housing Institute, and the Compass Housing Alliance, for comments. None responded to the requests.
