Three years after the crisis, the number of homeless continues to rise in Seattle

King: Three years after the emergency, where are things?

Walters: More people are homeless now than when the state of emergency has been declared. In King County, every night, more than 12,000 people are homeless. This compares with just over 10,000 people in the same number three years ago in 2015.

This comes from the annual One Night account and it is worth noting that the method has changed a bit in recent years, so it's not an apple-to-apple comparison.

But perhaps a more accurate way of thinking about the number of people needing to access a homeless service each year. In 2017, King County had 30,000 people, which gives you an idea of ​​the magnitude of the problem.

What do you think has changed in the past three years?

The idea of ​​the state of emergency was really to unlock funds from the state and the federal government. It's like when you say that after a flood or an earthquake, you actually get help. This did not happen.

It has been recognized that our systems are inefficient. We received a report in 2016 in which we said that frankly. Another report this year from the King County Auditor pointed out the same thing.

The city has also changed its funding priorities over the past three years. At the present time, the focus is more on monitoring the ability of providers to place people in permanent housing, not just on the quality of their service when they are in crisis , whatever the moment.

And we are putting more emphasis on the housing of people in general and we are spending more money to do it.

According to you, what has worked so far?

The city has put more services online and, overall, it seems that more people are housed in housing than in the past. We are also putting more emphasis on 24-hour shelters, of the type where people can bring their pets, their partners, and their belongings, where they can come in and really live in that space up to what they can move on. And the city's data shows that this type of shelter makes it easier to house people.

We also see that the large number of people flowing in is still overwhelming the system. So, even though we have had these improvements, the number of people who become homeless exceeds the number of people who come out of homelessness.

And there have been some failures that we have had in recent years as well. The city has not found a solution to treat people living in vehicles. And the number of people living in vehicles has increased significantly over the last year.

Do you know why we see this tip?

It's vague. That's one of those things when we estimate at 46% the number of people living in vehicles this year, thanks to the one-night count, which is underlined by the lack of shelter places and the lack of shelter that people are looking for.

So what's next?

We have heard for a long time about the need for a regional approach to this problem. I will be watching next year to see if the city and the county can really get there.

There is also a tension between the need to deal with the immediate crisis on the street and the need for long-term housing. City Council proposed to create a mega-tent type shelter. He is also considering modular housing as a faster way to help people leave the shelter system.