2025 survey shows increase in homelessness. Some think the total is way higher.
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- Pierce County's 2025 PIT Count reported an 11% increase in homelessness cases.
- Outreach data and service calls suggest PIT Count may severely understate totals.
- Housing costs rose 125% since 2015, paralleling a 130% rise in homelessness.
After several months of delay, Pierce County’s annual survey of those experiencing homelessness counted an 11% increase over the previous year.
While the annual Point-In-Time count is nationally recognized as one of the best ways to quantify the extent of homelessness, outreach workers and other metrics suggest the survey severely undercounts the true scale of the crisis.
The PIT count is a one-night survey of everyone either living in shelters or outdoors in Pierce County. It occurs in January every year and relies on the efforts of volunteers.
According to the county’s 2025 PIT Count report, 2,955 were counted on Jan. 30, up from 2,661 the previous year. The survey counted 1,522 people in shelters and 1,422 people who were unsheltered at the time of the count.
Last year’s PIT count results were reported by the county on May 23, this year they were published Aug. 18.
Libby Catalinich, spokesperson for the Pierce County executive, said the process was delayed this year because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which requires the survey, did not open their portal for reporting the data until May.
Catalinich says the county sends the data to HUD to review and approve the data before publishing it.
According to the county, the number of people counted in the PIT count has more than doubled since 2015, showing a 130% increase.
The county, which maintains the homelessness crisis is directly related to the cost and availability of housing, pointed out that median home prices have seen a 125% increase during the same time period.
“This crisis didn’t happen overnight — it’s the direct result of a housing market that has simply become unaffordable for too many of our neighbors,” Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello wrote in a statement regarding the PIT count data.
During the 2025 PIT count, the most commonly reported reason for being homeless was “family crisis or breakup,” of which 9% of participants reported as the reason they were unhoused. This was followed by “eviction,” “no affordable housing,” “loss of job,” and “fleeing domestic violence,” which were all tied at 7% of respondents.
Nearly 40% of survey respondents did not answer the question of how they became homeless.
“Like all surveys, the Homeless PIT Count has limitations,” the county’s report stated. “Results from the count are influenced by the weather, local encampment removal and relocation, availability of overflow shelter beds, the number of volunteers, and the level of engagement of the people volunteers’ interview.”
Some homeless outreach workers contend the PIT count is not an entirely accurate indicator of the true scale of the homelessness crisis in the region.
Steve Decker is the CEO for Family Promise of Pierce County, an organization that operates the county’s first-ever shelter hub, which aims to connect anyone experiencing homelessness in the region with shelter resources.
Last year, Decker told The News Tribune the PIT count is a “falsehood,” as the data it reports is limited both by the number of volunteers that turn out to conduct it and the fact that they are attempting to quantify a largely unseen population.
Other metrics also indicate the homelessness crisis is much larger than the PIT count would suggest.
During a Pierce County Council Health and Human Services Committee meeting on June 3, Jake Nau, an outreach manager for St. Vincent de Paul in Tacoma, was asked how much he estimated the PIT count is undercounting the true amount of people experiencing homelessness in Pierce County.
Nau told council members he believed there were “easily” more than 10,000 unhoused people in the region.
According to data from Family Promise of Pierce County, in July and June the organization had received an average of more than 1,500 calls for resources a month.
According to the county, more than 17,500 people have entered the county’s homeless crisis response system in 2025 alone, with only 1,375 exiting into permanent housing.
A report published this year by the Washington State Department of Commerce estimated more than 39,000 people experienced homelessness in Pierce County during the fiscal year of 2024, the second highest in the state behind only King County, which was estimated to have more than 66,000. The study used data from Medicaid, economic programs, and the Homelessness Management Information System to draw the estimations.
