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King County overdose deaths by where people lived, 2019-2026

Overdose deaths in King County, Washington, by the dead person's presumed living situation (private home; outdoors, shelter or vehicle; subsidized and supportive housing; other temporary stay) and by region, from the King County Medical Examiner, with HUD counts of supportive-housing beds and CDC state and national totals for comparison.

Coverage: Overdose deaths 2016-2026 (2026 through November 5); full-year counts 2019-2025; HUD bed counts 2019-2025; CDC totals 2015-2025

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What this dataset measures

Built to test whether a growing share of King County's overdose deaths happen among people living in subsidized and supportive housing, using the county's own counts for the same January 1 to November 5 window each year so that 2026 can be compared with earlier years.

Geography
King County, Washington, Seattle, Washington, Washington, United States
Unit of observation
Count of overdose deaths for a year (or January 1-November 5 of a year), living situation or region
Update cadence
One-time release; the Medical Examiner dashboard updates daily
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.

Overdose deaths, January 1-November 5, by living situation

Deaths in the same January 1-November 5 window each year, 2019-2026, so 2026 can be compared like for like.

Unit of observation: Year and presumed living situation

View this table

ytd-by-living-situation.csv text/csv · 2.4 KB (2,471 bytes)
6 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
year integer Calendar year of death. — observed
period string Date window counted: January 1 to November 5. — observed
living_situation string Medical Examiner's presumed living situation: Housing service site (permanent supportive housing, income-restricted units, recovery housing); Privately owned or rented residence; Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle; Other temporary arrangement; Unknown. — observed
deaths integer Overdose deaths, confirmed and probable (pending toxicology). deaths observed
value_type string observed, or derived for the Unknown rows computed as a remainder. — derived
county_total integer All overdose deaths in King County in the window. deaths observed

Overdose deaths by living situation, full years 2019-2025

Full calendar-year counts by presumed living situation.

Unit of observation: Year and presumed living situation

View this table

annual-by-living-situation.csv text/csv · 1.7 KB (1,753 bytes)
5 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
year integer Calendar year of death. — observed
living_situation string Medical Examiner's presumed living situation, as in the January-November table. — observed
deaths integer Overdose deaths in the year. deaths observed
value_type string observed or derived. — derived
county_total integer All overdose deaths in King County in the year. deaths observed

Overdose deaths by region of King County

Deaths by the region where the death occurred.

Unit of observation: Year and region

View this table

deaths-by-region.csv text/csv · 838 bytes
4 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
year integer Calendar year. — observed
region string Seattle, South, East or North King County. — observed
deaths_jan1_nov5 integer Deaths January 1-November 5. deaths observed
deaths_full_year integer Full-year deaths; empty for 2026. deaths observed

Supportive housing beds, Seattle/King County

Beds reported in HUD's annual Housing Inventory Count.

Unit of observation: Year

View this table

hic-beds-king-county.csv text/csv · 225 bytes
5 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
year integer Count year. — observed
psh_beds integer Permanent supportive housing beds. beds observed
oph_beds integer Other permanent housing beds (housing with services or housing only). beds observed
psh_plus_oph_beds integer Sum of the two. beds derived
es_beds integer Emergency shelter beds, for context. beds observed

CDC annual overdose deaths: United States, Washington, King County residents

12-month-ending December counts.

Unit of observation: Geography and year

View this table

cdc-annual-overdose-deaths.csv text/csv · 1.6 KB (1,622 bytes)
4 field definitions
FieldTypeMeaningUnitsValue type
geography string United States, Washington, or King County (residents). — observed
year integer Year ending in December. — observed
deaths integer Drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in December. deaths observed
basis string Whether the count is reported or provisional, and by place of residence. — observed

Supporting files

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

  • build_housing_od.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 10 KB (10,272 bytes)

    Node.js script that assembles the tables from the dashboard pulls and computes every saved analysis.

Saved analyses

Share of overdose deaths among people in subsidized and supportive housing, Jan 1-Nov 5

Question: What share of King County overdose deaths with a known living situation were among people living in subsidized and supportive housing, in the same January 1-November 5 window each year?

Result: 12.5% in 2019 (41 of 328) to 25.5% in 2026 (163 of 640), January 1-November 5 each year; about 1 in 8 to about 1 in 4.

Operation: housing service site deaths / (county total - unknown), per year

Scope: King County, 2019-2026

View this analysis

  • The category includes income-restricted and recovery housing as well as permanent supportive housing.
  • A share can rise because deaths elsewhere fall; the counts are given alongside.
  • Under the extreme assumption that every 2019 death with an unknown living situation was in this housing, the 2019 share would be 20.5%, against 24.3% to 28.9% in 2026.

Robustness checks

  • Sensitivity analysis: Sensitivity: 2026 deaths with unknown living situation. Assigning all of 2026's extra deaths with an unknown living situation to any one other group still leaves private homes and outdoor/shelter deaths down 16% and 10% from 2025, while subsidized and supportive housing stays flat or rises.

Change in overdose deaths, Jan 1-Nov 5 2026 vs 2025, by living situation

Question: How did 2026 overdose deaths so far compare with the same dates in 2025, by where people lived?

Result: Subsidized and supportive housing +1% (162 to 163); private homes -23%; outdoors, shelters and vehicles -26%; other temporary stays -26%; all deaths -15%.

Operation: deaths_2026 / deaths_2025 - 1, January 1-November 5

Scope: King County

View this analysis

  • 2026 is incomplete for recent weeks; late-reported deaths will raise every group somewhat.
  • 31 deaths in 2026 have no recorded living situation yet, against 3 in 2025.

Robustness checks

  • Sensitivity analysis: Sensitivity: 2026 deaths with unknown living situation. Even if all 28 extra unknown-situation deaths in 2026 belonged to private homes or to outdoors and shelters, those groups would still be down 16% and 10%; if they all belonged to subsidized housing it would be up 18%.

Sensitivity: 2026 deaths with unknown living situation

Question: Would the 2026 pattern hold if all of 2026's additional deaths with an unknown living situation belonged to one group?

Result: Private homes would still be down 16% and outdoors/shelters down 10%; subsidized and supportive housing would be up 18% if all extra unknowns were its.

Operation: (deaths_2026 + 28) / deaths_2025 - 1 for each group in turn; 28 = 31 unknown in 2026 minus 3 in 2025

Scope: King County, January 1-November 5

View this analysis

  • Other temporary stays is small, so its bound swings widely.

Robustness check for: Share of overdose deaths among people in subsidized and supportive housing, Jan 1-Nov 5 , Change in overdose deaths, Jan 1-Nov 5 2026 vs 2025, by living situation

Full-year overdose deaths, 2025 vs 2019, by living situation

Question: How many times larger were 2025 overdose deaths than 2019's, by where people lived?

Result: Subsidized and supportive housing 3.8 times 2019; outdoors, shelters and vehicles 3.3 times; private homes 1.8 times; all deaths 2.1 times.

Operation: deaths_2025 / deaths_2019, full years

Scope: King County

View this analysis

  • 2019 had 42 deaths with unknown living situation (about 10%), more than later years, which may understate 2019 counts in every category.

Deaths in subsidized and supportive housing per 1,000 HUD permanent housing beds

Question: Did housing deaths grow faster than the supply of permanent housing for homeless people?

Result: Beds grew 27% (7,718 to 9,791) while deaths grew 3.8 times; about 6.5 to 19.6 deaths per 1,000 beds.

Operation: housing service site deaths (full year) / (PSH + other permanent housing beds) x 1,000

Scope: King County, 2019 and 2025

View this analysis

  • If income-restricted and recovery housing grew much faster than HUD's permanent housing beds, the true rate rose less than this ratio.
  • Bed counts are one night in January or February each year.

Change since the 2023 peak, Jan 1-Nov 5, by living situation and region

Question: How much have overdose deaths fallen since 2023, by where people lived and by region?

Result: Since 2023: subsidized and supportive housing -33%, private homes -45%, outdoors and shelters -53%; Seattle and South King County both -43%.

Operation: deaths_2026 / deaths_2023 - 1, January 1-November 5

Scope: King County

View this analysis

  • 2026 is incomplete for recent weeks.

Change by region, Jan 1-Nov 5 2026 vs 2025

Question: Did 2026 overdose deaths fall more in some parts of King County than others?

Result: Seattle -5%, South -30%, East -16%, North -28%.

Operation: deaths_2026 / deaths_2025 - 1 by region

Scope: King County

View this analysis

  • Seattle fell faster in 2024-2025, so the one-year gap reverses an earlier one; since 2023 Seattle and South King County fell by the same 43%.

2025 overdose deaths compared with 2019: U.S., Washington, King County

Question: Are overdose deaths back to 2019 levels?

Result: U.S. 0.99 times 2019; Washington 2.37 times; King County 2.13 times.

Operation: deaths_2025 / deaths_2019

Scope: United States, Washington, King County

View this analysis

  • Fentanyl reached the West Coast years after the East, so the comparison reflects timing as well as policy.
  • King County uses Medical Examiner counts by place of death; the others use CDC counts by residence.

Sources

  1. Public Health - Seattle & King County / King County Medical Examiner's Office Overdose death counts by year, presumed living situation and region (place of death)

    Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public government data. Counts are public government statistics; FactHub redistributes the aggregated counts it read.

    Reliability: Government. The county Medical Examiner investigates every suspected overdose death in King County; investigators record each person's presumed living situation. The county runs and funds much of the housing in the 'housing service site' category.

  2. Public Health - Seattle & King County, Methods Report: Documentation and Analysis of Fatal Overdose Data Definitions of the living-situation categories and their limits

    Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public government document. Linked, not redistributed.

    Reliability: Government. The county health department's own description of how the dashboard's categories are assigned, including its warning that some categories may be inconsistently applied.

  3. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2007-2025 Housing Inventory Count by CoC Permanent supportive housing and other permanent housing beds for Seattle/King County (WA-500)

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

    Reliability: Government. A one-night inventory of beds reported each year by the local homelessness system to HUD; it counts beds, not occupants, and excludes most income-restricted and recovery housing.

  4. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional Drug Overdose Death Counts (VSRR) 12-month-ending overdose death counts for the United States and Washington (December of each year)

    Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

    Reliability: Government. Counts from death certificates by state of residence; recent months are provisional and adjusted for reporting delays.

  5. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Provisional County-Level Drug Overdose Death Counts 12-month-ending overdose deaths of King County residents

    Retrieved November 6, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Public domain.

    Reliability: Government. Provisional death-certificate counts by county of residence; used here only as a cross-check of the Medical Examiner's place-of-death counts.

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: Counts were read from the King County Medical Examiner's public overdose dashboard on November 6, 2026 (filters: year, presumed living situation, region, date of death January 1-November 5). The build script that assembles the tables and computes every saved analysis is included as an artifact. Dashboard counts for recent months change as toxicology results arrive, so a later pull will differ slightly.

  • The Medical Examiner's 'housing service site' category combines permanent supportive housing, income-restricted (subsidized) apartments and recovery housing; it cannot be split with public data.
  • The living-situation category describes where the person lived, as investigators presumed it, not necessarily where they died.
  • 2026 counts run through November 5 and include probable overdoses still awaiting toxicology; late-reported deaths will raise them somewhat.
  • The share of deaths with an unknown living situation fell from about 9% in 2019 to under 1% in 2024-2025, then rose to 4.6% of 2026 deaths so far; shares are computed among deaths with a known living situation, and a sensitivity analysis shows the range.
  • There is no public count of people living in subsidized and supportive housing, so these are counts and shares, not death rates; HUD bed counts cover only part of the housing in the category.
  • Medical Examiner counts are by place of death; CDC counts are by place of residence, so King County figures from the two sources differ slightly.

Publications using this dataset

Version details

The exact citing versions, and the version of this dataset each cites.

  • Article king-county-overdose-deaths-subsidized-housing — version 3 (published) cites version 1
  • Article king-county-overdose-deaths-subsidized-housing — version 2 (published) cites version 1
  • Article king-county-overdose-deaths-subsidized-housing — version 1 (published) cites version 1
  • Chart king-county-od-deaths-housing-share — version 1 (published) cites version 1
  • Chart king-county-od-deaths-change-2026 — version 1 (published) cites version 1

Node: dataset:king-county-overdose-deaths-by-place