King County supportive housing 'stay housed' rates and resident deaths

What this dataset measures

These are the 'stay housed' figures officials and operators quote for the county's homeless housing, from the regional authority (federal measure, quarterly report, dashboard), the county's Health Through Housing program, and the two largest operators, DESC and Plymouth. The death counts are the only public counts of deaths among supportive housing residents we found.

Geography

King County, Washington, United States

Unit of observation

One published rate, one published death count, or one scenario

Update cadence

When the regional authority publishes new federal measures or the Medical Examiner publishes a new overdose review

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

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

Published 'stay housed' rates for King County supportive housing

Each rate, its period, counts where published, and how the publisher handles residents who die.

Unit of observation: One published rate

View this table

retention-rates.csv text/csv · 3.4 KB (3,463 bytes)

12 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
rate_id	string	Row id	—	observed
publisher	string	Agency or operator	—	observed
rate_name	string	What the rate measures, in the publisher's terms	—	observed
period	string	Period covered	—	observed
published_rate_pct	number	The rate as published	percent	observed
counted_successful	integer	People or households counted as staying or moving to permanent housing, where published	—	observed
rate_base	integer	The rate's base (denominator), where published	—	observed
people_or_households_served	integer	Households served, or people moved in, where the source gives it apart from the base	—	observed
unit	string	people or households	—	observed
deaths_handling	string	Left out by HUD rule; Not stated; or Not stated for supportive housing	—	derived
what_method_says	string	What the source's method or notes say, in brief	—	derived
source_id	string	Source id	—	observed

Published deaths among people living in supportive or subsidized housing

Counts of deaths among residents, as published by the Medical Examiner, Public Health and Health Through Housing.

Unit of observation: One published count

View this table

deaths.csv text/csv · 1.6 KB (1,671 bytes)

7 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
death_id	string	Row id	—	observed
source_id	string	Source id	—	observed
period	string	Period	—	observed
who	string	Whose deaths are counted, as the source defines them	—	observed
cause	string	Cause covered	—	observed
deaths	integer	Deaths (a monthly average for me-psh-od-monthly)	deaths	observed
note	string	Quote or context	—	observed

The federal 96% rate with deaths counted

Measure 7b.2 for October 2022 to September 2023, as published and with two death counts added to its base as not staying housed.

Unit of observation: One scenario

View this table

scenarios.csv text/csv · 419 bytes

8 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
scenario_id	string	Row id	—	observed
scenario	string	What is added	—	observed
deaths_added	integer	Deaths added to the base	people	derived
counted_successful	integer	People who stayed or moved to permanent housing	people	observed
rate_base	integer	Published base plus deaths added	people	derived
rate_pct	number	counted_successful / rate_base	percent	derived
not_housed_count	integer	rate_base - counted_successful	people	derived
not_housed_pct	number	100 - rate_pct	percent	derived

Saved analyses

Sources

1. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), System Performance Measures HMIS Programming Specifications v1.0 (October 2025) The federal rule for measure 7b.2 (staying in or moving on from permanent housing), including Appendix A, which removes exits to Deceased from the measure

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. U.S. government work. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. HUD's technical specification that every homelessness system receiving federal Continuum of Care money must follow when it reports system performance. It sets the rule; it reports no local numbers.

2. King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Understanding System Performance Measures: A HUD Federal Report Overview (April 2025) The region's 96% figure for measure 7b.2 in federal years 2022 and 2023, with its counts

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. Slides from the regional agency that funds and oversees most of the county's homeless housing, reporting its own system's results to its advisory board.

3. King County Regional Homelessness Authority, Governing Board Performance Report, Quarter 2, 2025 Table 13 (98% of supportive housing households maintain or exit to permanent housing) and the report's definitions

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The regional authority's own quarterly report to its governing board on programs it funds.

4. King County Regional Homelessness Authority, System Performance dashboard and methodology Permanently housed rate for permanent housing including supportive housing, 2019 to 2025 and July 2025 to June 2026, and the page's stated formula

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The authority's public dashboard of homeless records (HMIS), which it says covers over 85% of programs; read by hand on November 12, 2026.

5. King County Department of Community and Human Services, Health Through Housing Annual Reports for 2024 and 2025 Supportive housing stability rates (95% in 2024, 93% in 2025), people served, and the residents who passed away while enrolled (15 and 10)

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. Written by the county department that runs the program. The 2024 report is at .../annual-reports/2024-health-through-housing-annual-report.pdf.

6. DESC, publications page with the 2024 annual report summary 94.6% of 466 people moved into supportive housing in 2024 kept their homes

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. All rights reserved (figures restated, page linked). Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Other. Has a stake in this finding. DESC is the county's largest supportive housing operator, funded by the county and city, reporting on its own programs.

7. DESC, 2025 Annual Report 98% of clients kept their homes after one year

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. All rights reserved (figures restated, document linked). Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Other. Has a stake in this finding. The operator's own annual report.

8. Plymouth Housing, 2025 Annual Report More than 95% of residents remain stably housed

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. All rights reserved (figures restated, document linked). Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Other. Has a stake in this finding. Plymouth is Seattle's second-largest supportive housing operator, reporting on its own programs.

9. Public Health - Seattle & King County, King County Overdose Fatality Review 2024 Report 225 fatal overdoses in permanent supportive housing settings in 2024 (p. 10)

   Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

   Reliability: Government. Written by the county health department's overdose review team from Medical Examiner records; it does not run housing.

10. Public Health - Seattle & King County, King County Overdose Fatality Review 2025 Report An average of 16 fatal overdoses a month among people living in permanent supportive housing, January 2024 to September 2025 (p. 17)

    Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

    Reliability: Government. Same publisher and method as the 2024 review.

11. King County Medical Examiner's Office, Annual Report dashboard (Decedent Characteristics, presumed living situation: housing service site) Deaths of all causes among people whose presumed living situation was a housing service site, 2021 to 2025

    Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

    Reliability: Government. The Medical Examiner investigates or reviews about one in five county deaths, mostly sudden or unexpected ones; its housing service site category mixes supportive, income-restricted and recovery housing. Read by hand on November 11, 2026.

12. Public Health - Seattle & King County, King County Fatal Overdose Dashboard (deaths by presumed living situation) Overdose deaths at housing service sites: 281 in 2023 and 235 in 2024

    Retrieved November 12, 2026. Public record. Public record; figures restated, document linked

    Reliability: Government. The county health department's public overdose dashboard, built from Medical Examiner records; pulled November 6, 2026.

13. HUD, 2024 Housing Inventory Count, Seattle/King County (WA-500) 7,768 permanent supportive housing beds in 2024

    Retrieved November 12, 2026. U.S. government work. Public record; figures restated, document linked

    Reliability: Government. Has a stake in this finding. The region's own count of beds reported to HUD each January.

License: FactHub's selection, cleaning and combined tables are licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source data keeps the terms listed above (terms).

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from public sources: Each rate and count is printed in the source named on its row. The scenarios add the death counts to the rate's base: rate = people counted as staying or moving to permanent housing / (people in the rate's base + deaths added).

• The scenarios are illustrations of scale, not corrected rates. The federal rate counts people in permanent housing projects that report to the county's homeless records (October 2022 to September 2023); the death counts come from Medical Examiner records for other periods and a wider or narrower set of buildings.
• The 225 overdose deaths are for calendar 2024, not the rate's October 2022 to September 2023 year. Overdose deaths at housing sites were higher in 2023 (281) than in 2024 (235) in the county's fatal overdose dashboard, which uses the Medical Examiner's broader housing category, so the 2024 count is not likely to overstate.
• Overdose deaths leave out other causes. The 487 all-cause deaths include income-restricted and recovery housing as well as supportive housing, and only deaths the Medical Examiner investigates; natural deaths under a doctor's care are mostly missing.
• Some residents who died may already be outside the federal rate's base for other reasons (no move-in date, a building not in the records), and some deaths may be of people not in the rate at all.
• For rates marked Not stated, the publisher does not say how deaths are handled; we could not confirm whether they are left out, counted as not staying housed, or counted as staying housed.
• Health Through Housing's death counts appear in its discussion of emergency housing exits; it is unclear whether they cover supportive housing residents.