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A comprehensive report on King County’s homeless population reveals job loss is the leading driver of homelessness in the region.
The report is based on data from King County’s 2024 Point in Time (PIT) count, which revealed that the majority of homeless people in the region (45%) cited job loss as the cause of their current homelessness, followed by eviction from their last stable home (9%).
Only 5% of unhoused people cited mental health issues for why they became unhoused and 47% reported that they abuse substances.
Last year’s PIT count had the highest recorded number of homeless people in King County with 16,385. The 2024 tally represents a 22.6% increase in the total number of homeless people in King County between 2022 and 2024.
KCRHA Communications Director Lisa Edge told The Center Square that the agency’s findings are supported by other research that shows economic conditions drive homelessness rates.
Not only are people losing housing due to job loss and evictions – most of them were stably housed in King County beforehand. According to a supplemental survey in the report, 490 out of 821 respondents (59.7%) reported that they were last stably housed in King County.
Seattle-based public policy think tank Discovery Institute painted a different picture with its data. According to the institute’s 2024 survey of people living in both temporary shelters and transitional housing in Seattle, 49.7% of people first began experiencing homelessness outside of Seattle or King County and 86.6% were born outside of the region.
The Center Square reached out to Caitlyn McKenney, research fellow and program coordinator for Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth and Poverty, who co-authored the report for comment on the PIT comprehensive report, but did not receive a response before publication.
The comprehensive report’s data supports KCRHA’s housing-first approach to end homelessness, which prioritizes building more units of affordable housing.
KCRHA has previously stated that a plan to increase housing capacity in King County to needed levels could potentially cost $450 million to $1.1 billion per year.
According to the latest PIT report, for every shelter bed in King County, more than two people are waiting.