Seattle – Today, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released updated data sets from the third quarter of 2023 for the City’s One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan and public-facing dashboard. The updates include new outreach and public safety data through September 2023 and verified tent and RV counts by neighborhood, which the UCT uses to better understand what is happening in the city’s public spaces and how efforts to bring people into shelter are working.
Pausing a downward trend in the number of tents citywide, the verified tent count increased during Q3, likely due to a seasonal increase in people living outdoors commonly seen during warmer months. The number of shelter offers extended during this same period increased by 37%.
The UCT completed over 3,000 site cleanings in the third quarter, removing over 1.2 million pounds of debris. While the number of site cleanings increased from Q2 by 14%, the amount of trash collected decreased by 22%, which appears to indicate UCT’s trash mitigation efforts are resulting in lower trash accumulation at some sites.
SNAPSHOT TENT/RV COUNT:
- September verified tent count: 475 (increase from 404 tents in Q2; overall decrease of 33% since December 2022)
- September verified encampment RVs: 235 (decrease from 292 in Q2; overall decrease of 48% since December 2022).
OUTREACH DATA:
- 587 referrals to shelter accepted during Q3
- 1,757 shelter referrals accepted since January 2023, an increase of 26% over the first three quarters of 2022
PUBLIC SAFETY DATA:
- Total Q3 emergency medical response calls: 3,417 (an average of 37 calls per day, an increase from 36 per day in Q2)
- Total Q3 fires at tent/RV encampments: 319 (an average of 3.5 per day, down from 3.9 per day in Q2)
- Total Q3 shots fired or shooting incidents connected to homelessness: 22 (up from 18 incidents in Q2)
The Unified Care Team is a coordinating hub for more than a dozen City departments and partners working together to bring our unhoused neighbors indoors and ensure Seattle streets, sidewalks, and public spaces remain clean and accessible to all. Encampment data is collected by UCT crews during regular site inspections and hosted in a comprehensive database that is used to access real-time information on encampments, respond to community concerns, and inform operational improvements.