One Night Count 1/27

Hi, if you or someone you know are experiencing homelessness, I want to let you know about an activity that’s coming up this early Friday morning, or late Thursday night—the One Night Count. Basically, every year in January, cities across the country spend a night counting both sheltered and unsheltered homeless folks in their communities. Last year, approximately 636,000 homeless persons in the United States were counted on a single night.

The annual One Night Count, scheduled for the early morning hours of Friday, January 27, will attempt to make a specific tally of unsheltered people throughout King County. The effort is organized by the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH) with support from the Committee to End Homelessness in King County (CEH), and dozens of local and state nonprofit and government partners. Teams of volunteers will be out in Auburn, Bellevue, Bothell, Federal Way, Kent, Kenmore, Kirkland, Redmond, Renton, Seattle, Shoreline, White Center and Woodinville. They will be counting homeless individuals and families who are sleeping outdoors, in vehicles, or in makeshift structures. On the same night, the King County’s Community Services Division will collect information from agencies providing shelter and transitional housing, to count the people using these publicly and privately funded services. The 2012 One Night Count will also collect information from select hospitals about emergency room usage, and from Metro night owl buses operating throughout the county.

In January 2011, volunteers found 2,442 people surviving outside without shelter. Another 6,382 people staying in shelters and transitional housing programs throughout King County were counted, bringing the 2011 One Night Count total to 8,824.

I wanted to give you a heads up since you might see folks on the streets with clipboards asking you a little information. Please do let yourself be counted. This survey is really important as many funding decisions for homeless individuals are based around the number of folks they count. King County received over $20 million in federal homeless housing funds this year. It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness of many of the issues some of you face on a daily basis and a chance for you to share your experiences and circumstances with decision-makers who need to hear what it’s really like out there.

That’s the One Night Count, this Friday, January 27 (late night of January 26) from 2:00 AM to 5:00 AM. For more information, see the One Night Count website. Everyone counts, so please be counted!