SPOKANE, Wash – Spokane’s annual count of people experiencing homelessness in Spokane shows the number has declined for the second year in a row.
The City of Spokane released results from the point-in-time count.
That’s a federally-required survey in which volunteers count the homeless on a single night.
This year’s count was held on January 22nd and found 1,806 people experiencing homelessness. That includes people in Spokane, Spokane Valley, Airway Heights and other areas of Spokane County.
The count includes people living in shelters and those living on the streets.
This year’s survey showed a decline in people living in shelters from 1,578 last year to 1,189.
The city credits the newly-developed navigation center, designed to guide people from shelters to permanent housing.
“It’s encouraging to see that overall homelessness has declined for a second year in a row,” said Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown. “The numbers reinforce what my Administration has said from start – that consistent engagement and a focus on navigating people to treatment, case management, and transitional housing is the right approach.”
The survey shows 70 percent of the people lived in Spokane County before becoming homeless.
14 percent came from other places in Washington and 14 percent were from outside of the state.
Other insights about people surveyed include:
106 total veterans, a decrease from 121 last year81 percent of those counted this year were over the age of 25 43 percent of adults surveyed reported suffering from serious mental illness52 percent of adults surveyed reported suffering from a substance use disorder9 percent of adults surveyed reported being survivors of domestic violence
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