More people experienced homelessness in Pierce County last year. Will 2024 be better?
More people experiencing homelessness were recorded in Pierce County in 2023 than years prior, according to Valeri Almony, a social services program specialist with Pierce County.
In a presentation Almony gave Wednesday to the Pierce County Council’s Select Committee on Homelessness, 2,148 people were recorded to be experiencing homelessness in January 2023, up from 1,851 in 2022 and 1,005 people in 2021.
Of those counted in 2023, 1,385 people were staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing and 763 were unsheltered, meaning they were sleeping in places like parking lots, abandoned buildings, transit centers or camping grounds during the time they were surveyed, according to Pierce County Human Services data.
The annual county Homeless Point-In-Time Count is designed to provide a “snapshot” of all people experiencing homelessness on a single night in late January, Almony said.
Her presentation came as preparations were being made for the 2024 count.
A group of volunteers, outreach teams, nonprofit service providers, local faith-based congregations and elected officials will be out the afternoon and night of Jan. 25, as well as the morning of Jan. 26, asking people where they are sleeping or where they slept the night of Jan. 25.
Those doing outreach will collect demographic information and distribute blankets and other necessities, Almony said. They will also distribute a reference guide with a list of resources, including to food banks, shelters, mental health and sexual assault resources, she said. That 2024 data will be available in April, Almony said.
There are still opportunities to register and complete training as a volunteer for the Point-In-Time Count online or volunteer Jan. 23 to put together hygiene kits that will be distributed during the event. Donations are still accepted for winter coats, blankets, medical supplies, feminine hygiene products, nutritious food and drinks, tarps and more, Almony said. Donations can be dropped off at 3602 Pacific Ave., she said.
In 2024 there will be a targeted focus on connecting with those living in East Pierce County, Almony said in her presentation. There will also be a greater focus on households in cars and RVs, she said.
As previously reported by the News Tribune, more people are living in cars and RVs locally and nationwide. According to the 2023 Point-In-Time Count, 135 people, or 28% of the recorded unsheltered population, were living in their vehicles.
In 2023, 48% of those experiencing homelessness said they lived in Pierce County before they became homeless and 36% reported having some income. The most commonly given causes for homelessness were family crises, no affordable housing and eviction and mortgage foreclosure, according to Pierce County data.
According to the 2023 Point-In-Time Count, 36% of people experiencing homelessness in Pierce County were female, 41% were Black, Indigenous or People of Color, 8% were veterans, 22% were age 55 or older, 8% were adult survivors of domestic violence, 7% were households with children and 25% were chronically homeless (usually defined as being homeless for a year or longer).
Mental illness was the most commonly reported disability, followed by chronic health conditions, substance use, physical disability and developmental disability. Some people reported having multiple disabilities, according to Pierce County data.
At the meeting Wednesday, after a question from Pierce County Council member Marty Campbell about the role encampment sweeps play in the accuracy of annual Point-In-Time Counts, Almony said the city of Tacoma has agreed to not do sweeps of encampments the week before and after the count.
“Finding people [is] really hard when they get moved. We’ve had outreach teams out for weeks saying, ‘We’re coming on these days, do the survey, we’ll have supplies.’ And if that encampment is gone, it really complicates things,” she said. “We don’t ever want the Point-In-Time Count to be linked to a sweep. We don’t want someone to assume this data is being used for a sweep, which it is not.”
Moving into 2025, Almony said, the Human Service Department’s goal is to work with jurisdictional partners, including the county, to freeze sweeps as much as possible in the weeks before and after the count to ensure its accuracy.
Those experiencing homelessness are asked about their age, race, gender, sexual orientation, last permanent address, domestic violence or stalking history, sources of income, disabilities and health-related questions, experience with homelessness and their primary reason for homelessness, according to Almony’s presentation.
For the first time in 2024, unaccompanied youth and young adults up to age 24 will be asked about their living situation, last grade of school completed, current school enrollment status, if they were or are in the foster system, if they were or are involved with the juvenile-justice system and how they made money this year, Almony said.
Pierce County Council member Jani Hitchen said she appreciated the presentation and said she’d be very interested in the results of the last two questions, as well as exploring any connections between youth coming out of the juvenile-justice system and foster care systems locally and regionally.
At the meeting Almony said Pierce County spent about $15,000, not including staff time, on improvements to the Counting Us app used to record Point-In-Time data and supplies to be distributed next week.
“I don’t think it’s a big lift for the county to support this, and I think that we should be supporting with more money than that,” said Tacoma City Council member Sarah Rumbaugh, who attended the meeting.
This story was originally published January 18, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
