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.
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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).
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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.
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csvlib.js
Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 518 bytes
CSV helper used by the SPM scripts.
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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.
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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
Seattle/King County System Performance Measures, FY2015-FY2024
Question: How did King County's homeless system perform on HUD's main measures from FY2015 to FY2024?
Result: FY2015 to FY2024: average days homeless in shelter 76 to 206.8; exits to permanent housing 30.5% to 49.2%; returns within 24 months 11.7% to 15.3%; first-time homeless per 10,000 31.1 to 32.3.
Operation: WA-500 rows from spm-panel
Scope: King County
View this analysis
- 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.
- Destination-based measures (M2, M7) can move tens of points on record cleanup alone; KCRHA attributes part of its FY2025 changes to this.
Derived from
This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.
Sources
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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
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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.
Publications using this dataset
Version details
The exact citing versions, and the version of this dataset each cites.
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Article
seattle-homelessness-spending-results —
version 5
(published) cites version 1
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Article
seattle-homelessness-spending-results —
version 4
(published) cites version 1
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Article
seattle-homelessness-spending-results —
version 3
(published) cites version 1
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Article
seattle-homelessness-spending-results —
version 2
(published) cites version 1
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Chart
king-county-shelter-days-chart —
version 1
(published) cites version 1