Seattle/King County homeless count and shelter and housing beds, 2012-2026

What this dataset measures

Shows what shelter and housing capacity King County added while its homeless count grew, using HUD's own inventory, and puts King County's capacity in context with the same 67 large CoCs used in homelessness-rate-vs-rent.

Geography

King County, WA, Seattle, WA, United States

Unit of observation

CoC by count year

Update cadence

Annually, after HUD releases PIT and HIC data by CoC

Curator

FactHub

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

Beds by type and homeless counts, 67 large CoCs

HUD Housing Inventory Count beds by project type for each CoC and year, joined to the PIT count and population.

Unit of observation: CoC-year

View this table

hic_panel.csv text/csv · 169.8 KB (173,908 bytes)

24 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
coc_code	string	HUD CoC code	—	observed
coc_name	string	CoC name as HUD listed it	—	observed
short_name	string	Short display name	—	derived
hud_category_2025	string	HUD 2025 CoC category	—	observed
year	integer	HIC/PIT year (January count night)	—	observed
es_beds	integer	HUD year-round emergency shelter beds	beds	observed
th_beds	integer	HUD year-round transitional housing beds	beds	observed
sh_beds	integer	HUD year-round safe haven beds	beds	observed
rrh_beds	integer	HUD year-round rapid re-housing (2014-2016 includes RRH demonstration projects; blank in 2012) beds	beds	observed
psh_beds	integer	HUD year-round permanent supportive housing beds	beds	observed
oph_beds	integer	HUD year-round other permanent housing (blank in 2012-2013) beds	beds	observed
es_seasonal_beds	integer	Seasonal emergency shelter beds (not in es_beds)	beds	observed
es_overflow_beds	integer	Overflow/voucher emergency shelter beds (not in es_beds)	beds	observed
temp_beds	integer	ES + TH + SH year-round beds	beds	derived
perm_beds	integer	RRH + PSH + OPH beds (only types reported that year)	beds	derived
pit_count_type	string	HUD PIT count type	—	observed
pit_total	integer	People counted homeless	people	observed
pit_sheltered	integer	People counted in shelter	people	observed
pit_unsheltered	integer	People counted unsheltered (carried forward in sheltered-only years)	people	observed
population	integer	Resident population (ACS B01003); blank 2012-2014 and 2020	people	observed
temp_beds_per_homeless	number	temp_beds / pit_total	beds per person	derived
unsheltered_share	number	pit_unsheltered / pit_total; blank in sheltered-only years	fraction	derived
temp_beds_per_10k	number	Temporary beds per 10,000 residents	beds per 10,000 residents	derived
perm_beds_per_10k	number	Permanent beds per 10,000 residents	beds per 10,000 residents	derived

Seattle/King County homeless count and beds by type, 2012-2026

King County (WA-500) rows from hic-panel, plus KCRHA's initial 2026 count (no 2026 bed data).

Unit of observation: Year

View this table

king_count_beds.csv text/csv · 1.6 KB (1,625 bytes)

16 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Count year	—	observed
source	string	HUD, or KCRHA initial release for 2026	—	derived
count_type	string	HUD PIT count type	—	observed
pit_total	integer	People counted homeless	people	observed
pit_sheltered	integer	People counted in shelter	people	observed
pit_unsheltered	integer	People counted unsheltered	people	observed
unsheltered_carried_forward	integer	1 if the unsheltered figure is not from a new count that year: HUD carried it forward from the previous count (2014, 2023, 2025) or recorded 0 because no unsheltered count was done (2021)	—	derived
es_beds	integer	HUD year-round emergency shelter beds	beds	observed
th_beds	integer	HUD year-round transitional housing beds	beds	observed
sh_beds	integer	HUD year-round safe haven beds	beds	observed
rrh_beds	integer	HUD year-round rapid re-housing beds	beds	observed
psh_beds	integer	HUD year-round permanent supportive housing beds	beds	observed
oph_beds	integer	HUD year-round other permanent housing beds	beds	observed
temp_beds	integer	ES + TH + SH	beds	derived
perm_beds	integer	RRH + PSH + OPH	beds	derived
temp_beds_per_homeless	number	temp_beds / pit_total; blank in sheltered-only years	beds per person	derived

Supporting files

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

• build_hic.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 4.9 KB (4,976 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds hic-panel from the HUD HIC workbook sheets (exported to CSV) and the PIT/ACS panel.

• analyze_hic.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 6.5 KB (6,702 bytes)

  Node.js script for the cross-CoC bed comparisons in the method notes.

• csvlib.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 1.1 KB (1,139 bytes)

  CSV helper used by the HIC scripts.

• build_count_beds.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 24.9 KB (25,500 bytes)

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

• findings-hic.md Documentation · text/markdown · 16.2 KB (16,567 bytes)

  Method notes, King County and cross-CoC results, and caveats for the bed-capacity data.

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

  Population and CoC geography for beds per 10,000 residents.

Sources

1. HUD, 2007-2025 Housing Inventory Count by CoC (AHAR Part 1 data) Year-round, seasonal and overflow beds by project type for each CoC and year. Downloaded from the Internet Archive because huduser.gov blocks scripted requests; contentDigest is the SHA-256 of the downloaded workbook (2,598,803 bytes).

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

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

2. HUD, 2007-2025 Point-in-Time Counts by CoC (AHAR Part 1 data) Total, sheltered and unsheltered counts and count type. contentDigest is the SHA-256 of the workbook downloaded from the archived copy.

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

   Archived copy captured May 30, 2026

3. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, table B01003 (population) Resident population used for beds per 10,000 residents (via dataset homelessness-rate-vs-rent).

   Retrieved October 10, 2026. U.S. government work (public domain). Public domain.

4. KCRHA, 2026 Point-in-Time Count FAQs (initial release), June 23, 2026 King County 2026 count (18,365 total; 6,536 sheltered; 11,829 unsheltered), table on p.3. HUD had not yet published 2026 data.

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

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

5. KCRHA, 2024 Point-in-Time Count FAQ v2 Documents the respondent-driven sampling method used since 2022.

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

   Archived copy captured October 10, 2026

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Export the HUD HIC workbook sheets to CSV, run hic-build-script against them and the panel from dataset homelessness-rate-vs-rent, then run count-beds-script (Node.js).

• HIC beds are inventory on the count night, not occupancy.
• King County's count method changed in 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2026; HUD carried unsheltered counts forward in 2014, 2023 and 2025.
• Permanent housing beds serve people who are no longer counted as homeless.
• Rapid re-housing beds depend on grant funding and swing year to year.
• Descriptive data; no causal claims.