Final report released for 2018 Point In Time

Snohomish County’s unsheltered population has grown by 10 percent annually since 2013, despite a big drop last year.

That’s according to the final Point In Time report released last Tuesday. This year’s survey took place Jan. 23. The release states more than 250 volunteers — the report states 243 volunteers — talked to 378 unsheltered individuals, which was 27 percent fewer than in 2017.

“As we develop ways to reduce the impacts of homelessness on our community, we must focus on data-driven solutions and partnerships that lift up our most vulnerable neighbors,” Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers stated in a news release.

One in 10 people surveyed on Jan. 23 reported their last home was somewhere between Monroe and Skykomish. About one in 16 people said they had slept in the same area the night before.

That’s down from last year. Nearly one in 13 people reported in 2017 the last place they lived was in Monroe or the Sky Valley; one in nine had slept there the night before.

The county is divided into four sections during the count. Monroe’s social services organization, Take the Next Step, has been the East County staging site for years. Organizers said, even during the event, they would be skeptical of the results this round.

They believed a few factors added up to a low turnout; volunteers had trouble finding people, and getting them to participate.

Two homeless men had recently died in the area, which grew mistrust. Volunteers also heard reports from members of the community that Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office deputies had been out sweeping sites in the weeks that led up to the count. Law enforcement agencies are invited to partner with organizations for the PIT — they are asked not to remove people from camps before the date.

“Our total count was 50, the lowest count in our history of participating in the Point in Time (PIT) count, and although this is only a snapshot of one day, it absolutely does not come close to representing the homeless crisis in our area,” Take the Next Step Drop-In center director Janos Kendall stated when the preliminary results were released this spring. “This count would make it look that our homeless situation is improving a great deal, when in fact it’s not.”

Somers credits the reported shrinking unsheltered population to programs doing their job. The county has been getting more people into housing, he states in the release.

“The solutions are as complex as the problems, especially at a time when affordable housing is becoming scarcer,” he states.

The amount of affordable housing is on the rise, according to the report. Staff at those facilities can also connect clients to other services.

Results of the annual count aren’t exhaustive. They can shed light on trends, which evolve over time, and help determine state and federal funding the county receives. 

Service providers also use them to set a course.  

“This yearly effort helps us better understand where we are and how we should focus our time and resources,” said Snohomish County Council chair Stephanie Wright in the release. “Snohomish County will continue to do everything possible to move people from the streets and camps to healthier housing situations.”

In Jess Jorstad’s introduction, the Snohomish County lead data and program analyst said people often find the numbers alone don’t offer enough of an explanation. She states they report seeing friends and family “fighting a battle they don’t have the resources to overcome.”

“The experiences we can count don’t add up with the suffering people are witnessing,” she writes. 

Instead, Jorstad believes they want answers to bigger questions, like what supports are effective, is affordable housing accessible, and has homelessness become more or less pervasive.

A few statistics stuck out this year. Almost two-thirds of the people who participated were chronically homeless, which is someone who has a disability and has been homeless for a year, or at least four times for a combined period of a year within the past three years.

Many people surveyed experienced more than one condition that was a barrier to stability, such as a mental illness, substance abuse disorder or chronic illness. Almost half were in an emergency shelter on Jan. 22, and 116 were in transitional housing.

A 5-day-old baby was recorded in a shelter, according to the report.

The most prevalent person experiencing homeless in Snohomish County is a disabled white male somewhere in their mid-30s to early-40s.

Most people volunteers spoke with were originally from Snohomish County, according to the report. The area’s population is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. About 45 people move to the county every day, or 16,500 a year.

People almost equally named addiction, family issues and job loss as the reason they became homeless. They also identified a lack of affordable rentals and eviction, but only about half as many cited those experiences as they did addiction, family issues and job loss.

“Too many members of our community continue to suffer without adequate housing,” Wright said in the release.