‘It’s everywhere.’ Heat map shows homeless-activity hot spots in Tacoma
Data from the City of Tacoma shows which neighborhoods have had the most homeless encampments based on reports from neighbors. While few areas in the city are immune from homeless encampments, the hot spots are clear.
During the Tacoma City Council’s Community Vitality and Safety Committee meeting on May 8, Caleb Carbone, the homeless strategy, systems and services manager with the city’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department, shared a heat map showing the city’s reported homeless activity.
The map indicates the over 3,000 calls related to homelessness throughout the City of Tacoma over the first quarter of 2025.
The City of Tacoma provides a data dashboard mapping the number of reports it has received through its 311 system. The 3,641 reports charted during the first quarter are related to encampments, derelict vehicles and property left on public right of ways.
According to the heat map, northern and western Tacoma have recorded the fewest number of calls related to homelessness, but some activity was recorded along certain parts of Pearl Street.
Two hot spots in the northern and western area included Westgate Shopping Center on Pearl Street and a location near the intersection of Pearl Street and 6th Avenue, near the State Route 16 overpasses.
Activity was also reported at the waterfront near Schuster Parkway.
Hot spots of calls related to unhoused individuals in southern and eastern Tacoma include the vicinity of Hosmer Street near Tacoma’s city limits, near 38th Street by the Tacoma Mall and along Pacific Avenue in South Tacoma.
Another area with a high density of reports is near the Port of Tacoma, adjacent to Interstate 5.
During a Tacoma Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness meeting on May 2, Bianca Shell, program manager for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s street-medicine program, spoke about how the program would reach individuals living unhoused across the city.
“When compared to much larger cities, they have encampments that are much larger, they have a lot more density, and so they don’t have to spend as much time finding people, right?” Shell told the coalition. “If you ask a lot of folks in Tacoma, ‘Where do people experiencing homelessness live?’ They’ll often tell you around where they live, right, and then when you look at the maps, it’s everywhere.”
Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood and the downtown area were host to some of the largest hot spots of reported homeless activity. That part of the city also hosts the majority of Tacoma’s shelters for unhoused people.
In October 2022, the Tacoma City Council passed an ordinance that prohibits camping and the storage of personal belongings in a 10-block radius around temporary shelters and all public property within 200 feet of Tacoma’s rivers, waterways, creeks, streams and shorelines. Under the ordinance, violators face fines of up to $250 and up to 30 days in jail.
The heat map included overlays of the multiple 10-block radius around Tacoma’s shelters. Nearly all of the shelter had hot spots within a 10-block radius.
To enforce the policy, the city uses both police and homeless-outreach staff, known as the HEAL team, which makes contact with people living in encampments that have been reported to the city. Its job is to get folks living unhoused to accept offers of shelter and services that help them get off the streets. The HEAL team reportedly contacted 519 people in the first quarter of 2025.
The city reported spending $561,112 to remove 488,960 tons of debris from encampments during the first quarter of 2025.
According to data from Tacoma’s Homeless Engagement and Alternatives Liaison Team, the city records the highest volume of encampment reports during the summer months.
This summer, the city is preparing to lose more than 300 shelter beds but is planning to apply for part of the $58.8 million in funding the Legislature allocated in its budget for city and county homeless programs. The governor has yet to sign the budget into law.
City spokesperson Maria Lee told The News Tribune the city requested $6 million per year to maintain 307 shelter beds through June 2027. Lee told The News Tribune as of the first quarter of 2025, the city has a little over 1,000 shelter beds.
With fewer shelter beds available than in previous years, the impact on the number of encampments the community will see is unclear.
This story was originally published May 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
