New data shows progress in key areas of bringing people indoors, new housing units, reduction in some public safety incidents
Seattle – Today, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released the updated data sets from the fourth quarter of 2022 for the City’s One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan and public-facing dashboard.
In 2022, more than 1,800 referrals to shelter were made in a coordinated outreach effort that includes the City’s HOPE Team, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA), and numerous non-profit partners. The Q4-2022 snapshot of unauthorized encampments includes 712 documented tents and 449 documented RVs located throughout the City.
Included in the website updates is the addition of information about the City’s 2023 adopted budget for homelessness response and affordable housing programs. Included in the breakdown of the total $153.7 million dedicated to various homelessness response programs is the $96.9 million allocated to the King County Regional Homelessness Authority for 2023. Also included in the website updates are notes highlighting the historic investment of a quarter of a billion dollars for affordable housing and other programs in the 2023 adopted budget for the City’s Office of Housing.
Highlights from Q4 data updates include:
New Snapshot Data:
- Dec. verified tents: 712 (814 in June—a 13% reduction)
- Dec. verified RV encampments: 449
- Since the launch of the dashboard in May, the number of RVs counted in the quarterly snapshots has fluctuated due to improvements and refinements in RV data collection and documentation in the field, with the expectation that the snapshot counts for tents and for RVs will become more accurate and consistent as 2023 progresses.
New Shelter & Supportive Housing Data:
- Total identified new housing and shelter units: 2,065
- This exceeds the goal of identifying 2,000 units in 2022.
New Public Safety Data:
- Total emergency medical response calls in 2022: 12,138 (holding steady at an average of 33 calls per day)
- Total fires at tent/RV encampments in 2022.: 1,617 (slight increase to an average of 4.5 fires per day, likely driven by colder weather in Q4)
- Total shots fired or shooting incidents connected to homelessness in 2022: (decrease from an average of three per week in Q3 to two per week in Q4)
Driven by data, the One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan will continue to showcase the City’s priorities and actions to make progress on our objectives to get people indoors, create places for people to live, and develop innovative and regional solutions to ensure sustainable progress. Future updates to the website and dashboard will include more details about the development of neighborhood teams within the City’s Unified Care Team—a change that was included in the Mayor’s 2023 budget proposal and approved as part of the final adopted budget. The launch of the first neighborhood team is expected in late March, with additional neighborhood teams added throughout the year.