Median days homeless in shelter: King County vs. the large-CoC median and Houston, FY2015-FY2024

What this dataset measures

Tests whether King County's homeless system moves people into housing as well as other large regions, using the measures HUD requires every CoC to report. Same 67 CoCs as homelessness-rate-vs-rent.

Geography

United States, King County, WA, Seattle, WA

Unit of observation

CoC by federal fiscal year

Update cadence

Annually, after HUD updates its SPM data file

Curator

FactHub

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build_spm.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 6.2 KB (6,301 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds spm-panel from the HUD workbook sheets (exported to CSV).

• rank.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 2.7 KB (2,754 bytes)

  Node.js script that ranks WA-500 among the large CoCs, with and without data-quality exclusions.

• csvlib.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 518 bytes

  CSV helper used by the SPM scripts.

• build_spm_dataset.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 23.2 KB (23,731 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds spm-king and the saved analyses in this dataset.

• findings-spm.md Documentation · text/markdown · 16.5 KB (16,875 bytes)

  Method notes, results, KCRHA cross-check and data-quality caveats for the System Performance Measures.

Saved analyses

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

• Homelessness rate vs. rent in 67 large U.S. Continuums of Care, 2015-2025 Version 1

  CoC list and population for first-time homelessness per 10,000 residents.

Sources

1. HUD Exchange, CoC System Performance Measures Data Since FY 2015 CoC-level System Performance Measures, one sheet per fiscal year FY2015-FY2024, as submitted by each CoC.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. U.S. government work (public domain). Public domain; not rehosted here.

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

2. KCRHA, "Understanding System Performance Measures: A HUD Federal Report Overview," CoC Board, April 1, 2026 KCRHA's own FY2024 and FY2025 figures and its explanation that record cleanup drove part of the FY2025 changes.

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. Public agency document. Linked, not rehosted.

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Export each sheet of the HUD SPM workbook to CSV, run spm-build-script with the CoC list and panel from dataset homelessness-rate-vs-rent, then rank-script and spm-dataset-script (Node.js).

• SPMs are self-reported from each CoC's HMIS and not audited by HUD; CoCs may revise prior years.
• HMIS bed coverage differs by CoC and year (King County 77-87%); domestic-violence providers are excluded everywhere.
• Descriptive comparisons; differences may reflect data practice, coverage or system design as well as performance.
• HUD's FY2024 file has zeroed transitional-housing return counts for most CoCs; only the combined "All" columns are used.
• HUD revised exit-destination categories in its FY2024 HMIS Data Standards.