About the One Night Count

Photo from wikimedia commons, of people sleeping in Steinbrueck Park
(I added the number). Original photo by Joe Mabel, 2011.

This may be in the "more than you wanted to know" department.

The One Night Count in King County found 4,505 sleeping outside or without adequate shelter. I discussed this in the last post.

When counting: tents, sleeping bags, or tarps are not considered adequate shelter. All the folks in the organized encampments are considered to be unsheltered during the One Night Count. While they have somewhat more safety than those who are "sleeping rough" by themselves, they are still not housed.

This year, several shootings occurred during the period before the One Night Count, in the area known as "the Jungle." As a result, the agency conducting the One Night Count did not count the homeless in the Jungle this year, as it was considered too dangerous.

I believe that there are still many homeless living in the Jungle, living with the ever-present danger of being assaulted while they sleep.

During the One Night Count, they physically counted 29 minors. There are likely many more. The State of Washington reports over 35,000 schoolchildren were homeless at some point during the school year.

The statewide numbers were up this year.

Before the One Night Count, I had estimated that the count would be around 5,000. I was close; 4,505 is only 9.9% short. We don't know how many homeless live in the Jungle. Had they been counted, I think we'd be a lot closer to 5,000 than most politicians are comfortable with.

The fact that we have 5,000 people sleeping unsheltered in King County should generate outrage. But if you live with something long enough, you become inured to it. It doesn't cause that outrage any more.

The cities and the counties do not have the resources to deal with this problem. Washington is one of the states that has no income tax, and has one of the lowest overall government spending rates. It's also one of the states where homelessness is rising. Maybe -- just maybe -- those three facts are connected.

The State legislators know that we have a homelessness crisis. And many of them are trying (in their various silos) to solve it their own way. There is not a concerted and organized effort to solve these problems. What we have -- cities, counties, state -- is a mishmash of small private and public efforts.

A question remains: what shall we do about this?

Do you know who your United States Congressmen and United States Senators are? Have you made your views known to them?

Do you know who your State Representatives and State Senators are? Have you made your views known to them?

Do you know your City and County council members? Have you made your views known to them? Publicly? Have you spoken to these councils in the public comment periods of their meetings? The more people who talk about these facts, the more they'll pay attention to them!

One Night Count, King County: 4,505

 4,505 homeless outside in King County

Photo from wikimedia commons, of people sleeping in Steinbrueck Park
(I added the number). Original photo by Joe Mabel, 2011.

That's how many we counted outside last night.
It's a preliminary number, but it shouldn't change very much.
4,505 is enough to populate a good-sized town. The town I grew up in numbered 330; the nearest larger town was 2500.
There is only one way to solve homelessness. It's really simple.

Homes are the answer to homelessness.

Not everyone agrees with me about that. Most politicians want complicated solutions, technological solutions, psychological solutions. But the fact of the matter is that without housing, those will likely not help.

Employment, for example. A number of homeless are employed. Perhaps 30-35% of them, nationwide. Most of those jobs are menial jobs. Dirty, nasty jobs. The wages are lousy, the working conditions poor. Long hours of drudgery. Here in Seattle, many homeless work for various temporary firms after sporting events and concerts, cleaning up the stadiums.

And what of those who are only really suited for office work? Whether disabled, or simply not suited to menial jobs or manual labor? When you're homeless, you carry your stuff on your back, or it gets stolen. There is nowhere to store it -- with some exceptions (which I'll get to in a minute). When you walk into an interview with a backpack and suitcase, you generally don't get the job. Even a temporary job. Keeping your clothing clean while homeless is a major undertaking, because most of the time you're focused on survival.

The exceptions for storing your stuff?

• SHARE/WHEEL's Tent Cities (3,4,5); 
• SHARE/WHEEL's Storage Locker program; 
• United We Stand (an encampment);
• Camp Unity Eastside (another encampment); and 
• Nickelsville (another encampment). 

There may be others, but I have not heard of them (An interesting side note: All of those are related to SHARE/WHEEL in some way. Not necessarily a friendly way...).

Housing changes the equation. When you're housed, with a locking door: your stuff is a lot safer. When you're housed, and you have a shower available to you, you can keep a lot cleaner. And you can likely obtain employment much easier.

This is why Housing First is such a game-changing policy. Stabilize the housing situation first. Then fix the other problems.

There's an article here about an actual controlled study on Housing First. And an article here about an interview with some details about the man who originated it, and some more information.

4,505 homeless outside in King County

What are we doing to end this crisis?

The opinions expressed in this post are mine. They may not be anyone else's. The Board of Greater Seattle Cares may not agree with this opinion.