Local Data Sources

The shelter and transitional housing survey produced through the One Night Count currently has a higher participation rate (184 programs) than the Safe Harbors homeless information system (161 programs).  Safe Harbors data represents a full year of services provision however, whereas the One Night Count captures information on those served on only one night in January.   

The One Night Count:

 The Seattle-King County Coalition for the Homeless (SKCCH) coordinates service providers every year in conducting a one night survey of homeless in shelters and transitional housing, as well as a street count of homeless people.

Demographic information is gathered for those who are receiving shelter or transitional services. On the night of the count, service providers are asked to complete a spreadsheet with answers to a series of questions for each individual and household served by their program on that night.

Total people included in the 2009 One Night Count survey: 6,134 in shelter and transitional housing programs and 2,827 people without shelter. 

Safe Harbors Homeless Management Information System (HMIS)

Safe Harbors is a collaboration between King County, the City of Seattle Human Services Department and United Way of King County. All shelter and transitional housing programs funded by King County, City of Seattle or United Way are required to provide information on all clients since January 2007. Additional types of homeless assistance programs were included in 2009 including homelessness prevention, permanent supportive housing and other services for people who are homeless..

The 2008 report contains data on 12,963 people who could be uniquely identified.  More than 23,000 records were entered into the system in 2008, but many represented people who used more than one service or did not contain adequate information to be analyzed or unduplicated.  The data entered into Safe Harbors during 2009 was produced by 161 programs.