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

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

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

ytd-by-living-situation.csv text/csv · 2.4 KB (2,471 bytes)

All 40 rows 6 columns Download the file

All 40 rows

year	period	living_situation	deaths deaths	value_type	county_total deaths
2019	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	41	observed	361
2019	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	220	observed	361
2019	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	56	observed	361
2019	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	11	observed	361
2019	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	33	observed	361
2020	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	61	observed	427
2020	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	263	observed	427
2020	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	48	observed	427
2020	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	18	observed	427
2020	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	37	observed	427
2021	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	98	observed	606
2021	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	372	observed	606
2021	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	72	observed	606
2021	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	35	observed	606
2021	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	29	observed	606
2022	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	142	observed	802
2022	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	417	observed	802
2022	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	164	observed	802
2022	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	28	observed	802
2022	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	51	observed	802
2023	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	244	observed	1173
2023	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	586	observed	1173
2023	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	273	observed	1173
2023	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	46	observed	1173
2023	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	24	observed	1173
2024	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	195	observed	867
2024	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	436	observed	867
2024	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	192	observed	867
2024	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	39	observed	867
2024	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	5	derived	867
2025	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	162	observed	792
2025	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	418	observed	792
2025	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	174	observed	792
2025	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	35	observed	792
2025	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	3	derived	792
2026	Jan 1-Nov 5	Housing service site	163	observed	671
2026	Jan 1-Nov 5	Privately owned or rented residence	322	observed	671
2026	Jan 1-Nov 5	Outdoors, homeless shelter, or vehicle	129	observed	671
2026	Jan 1-Nov 5	Other temporary arrangement	26	observed	671
2026	Jan 1-Nov 5	Unknown	31	observed	671

6 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value 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

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.

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.