A headcount on a winter day brought the extent of rising homelessness in Pierce County into focus. On Jan. 29, nearly 2,000 people were homeless. About one-third of them had no shelter. The 2016 Point in Time homelessness report, the result of work by volunteers who sought out the number of people and families living outside or in cars, revealed that homelessness has risen 37 percent in the past year. "This is clearly a sobering report,GÇ¥ said County Councilman Doug Richardson. He added that the analysis points to the need for "a plan of actionGÇ¥ to relieve the homeless plight. The highest concentration of Pierce County's homeless people was in Tacoma, where a combined 627 (418 sheltered, 209 unsheltered) were counted. Among south Pierce County communities, Spanaway had the most (35 sheltered, seven unsheltered for a total of 42). Eatonville had four of each category. One unshelterd person was counted in Graham. Other survey highlights include: " 1,268 individuals are in shelters; 494 are unsheltered " 55 percent of homeless are single adults; 40 percent included family members, and 5 percent are unaccompanied youth and young adults " Slightly more than half are males. " Nearly one-quarter of the homeless surveyed are under 18 years old. " When asked their last permanent residence, less than 5 percent of the homeless overall were from outside Pierce County. " Nearly 20 percent spent the night before the survey sleeping outside. " The most common reason cited for homelessness was to flee domestic violence. " 26 percent had income of some type; 11 percent had jobs. "Unfortunately, there is no one magic solution to ending homelessness,GÇ¥ said Pat McCarthy, Pierce County Executive. "However, we must use all of the funding sources we have available and all of our partnerships to shape a creative, regional approach to this crisis. We all have the same goal: to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring.GÇ¥ The Point in Time survey was conducted by more than 200 trained volunteers during daylight hours on Jan. 29. Volunteers, who went to encampments, shelters, food banks, libraries, community centers and any other place where persons experiencing homelessness might be found, counted 1,762 homeless people who slept in emergency shelters, transitional housing, outdoors or in other places not meant for human habitation. The process included a comprehensive interview that incorporated questions about family composition, length of time homeless, presence of disabling condition and the factors that contributed to their homeless crisis.
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