(SEATTLE)—Amid a recent Seattle Times report that shows evictions in King County and across Washington state are at all-time highs, United Way of King County is urging lawmakers to invest more in prevention programs that keep people in their homes and help stave off possible increases in homelessness. 

According to the February 2 Seattle Times article, the number of eviction cases filed in Washington courts rose to 23,965 in 2025, a 3% increase from 2024. In King County, the number of cases grew by 12% to 8,732, the report said.  The Times report cited Office of Civil Legal data showing that about 9 in 10 eviction cases statewide in 2025 were due to nonpayment of rent, and it said that record levels last year followed a trend of skyrocketing filings after pandemic-era evictions pauses ended in 2022. 

In May of 2022, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, King County officials placed United Way in charge of the county’s emergency rental assistance program. Through May of 2023, United Way disbursed about $1 million per week in rental assistance, equivalent to about 85 households. 

Though much of the federal funding for rental assistance during the pandemic has been discontinued, we continue to keep low-income families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities housed through coordinated and centralized housing stability services that help renters and landlords avoid the costly impact of eviction. 

Our holistic homelessness prevention investments include emergency rent assistance, flexible stability funds, caseworkers who connect renters to resources, tenant/landlord mediation, pre-eviction civil legal aid, and in-court legal representation. In 2025, in partnership with a network of community-based partners, we deployed $6.8 million in public-private funds that kept 2,300 low-income families housed, transforming how our region responds to tenant and landlord needs across hundreds of properties.   

United Way also partners with the Seattle-based Housing Justice Project to provide free legal assistance to renters facing eviction. The Housing Justice Project is a division of the King County Bar Association and has on-staff lawyers, volunteer lawyers, and other legal professionals dedicated to helping people stay in their homes. 

Still, about 1,000 new households are added to our rental assistance waitlist each month.

A University of Notre Dame study on Santa Clara County’s Homelessness Prevention System in 2023 showed that individuals and families at risk of eviction who received emergency financial assistance were 81% less likely to experience homelessness within six months. Once a person or family loses their home or experiences homelessness, it takes significantly more resources and time to return to long-term stability.   

United Way applauds recent efforts at the state, regional, and local levels to build more housing, but we believe more should be done to keep people already in their homes from facing eviction.