Seattle-area homelessness spikes 23% despite record spending

Despite record spending to solve the crisis, King County Washington reported an all-time high number of homeless following a recent survey.

According to the 2024 Point-In-Time Count, 16,385 people were found to be experiencing homelessness on a given day in King County, a number that many experts and the survey itself agree is likely an undercount.

The figure represents the largest number of homeless ever reported in Seattle and King County. In, 2005, King County launched a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness by 2015. Since then, the number of homeless people has grown exponentially.

According to the biennial survey of the area conducted by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, which is required by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of homeless has only continued to rise.

The 2024 figures represent a 23 percent increase in homelessness from 2022, the last time the study was conducted.

Unsheltered homelessness spiked over 27 percent, from 7,685 people in 2022 to 9,810 in 2024. 

Sheltered homelessness also jumped by more than 15 percent. 

Over 51 percent of the area’s homeless are white, but the agency attempted to make the results about race, claiming that homelessness continues to disproportionately affect communities of color.

19 percent of the homeless are black, while people who identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Indigenous make up 7 percent of the county’s homeless population. 

The survey collectors have come under fire for the methodology of using respondent-driven sampling, which is said by critics to be inaccurate. Before KCRH’s involvement in the count, volunteers would go out across the county one day in January to knock on RVs and find people living in tents to count as many as possible. 

The federal Point-In-Time Count has also been criticized for only reflecting a one-day snapshot rather than showing the homeless population over time.  

Using the Washington Department of Commerce's estimate, which includes dozens of administrative databases ranging from unemployment insurance to Medicaid, nearly 54,000 people experienced homelessness in King County throughout 2024.

While King County Executive Dow Constantine’s office claimed the solution was to continue to double down on President Joe Biden's failed "housing first" model to solve the crisis, the survey showed over 63 percent of homeless suffered from mental illness or a substance abuse problem.

In response to the devastating report, King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn called for an end to the scandal-ridden King County Regional Homelessness Authority because it is a poor return on the money invested.

He told KOMO News, “King County's commitment to the regional homeless authority should end. It's not gonna work. When we first put the homeless governance in place, I said, 'this might not work.' It's not working.”

He added, “What we need to do as King County is take those dollars back, put them in a variety of different areas that I've talked about, including funding congregate shelters.”

The city of Seattle, one of the top funders of the agency, has already asked KCRHA to submit a budget reduction scenario in hopes of finding savings because of the $250 million forecasted budget deficit.

The city already took over $11 million from the KCRHA and diverted it to the Seattle Human Services Department for prevention and outreach services.