California's homelessness rate rose by more than half since 2015; Texas's was flat
Homeless people per 10,000 residents, 2015 and 2025, from HUD point-in-time counts.
Organization on FactHub
FactHub Research Team
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California high-speed rail costs about $255 million per mile, several times other projects
Approximate cost per mile of California high-speed rail and comparison projects.
California's spending per resident grew 61% after inflation; peers about 25%
Growth in total state spending per resident, after inflation, FY2012 to FY2024.
LA's homelessness budget grew 9.4-fold; the homeless count still rose 56-59%
Growth multiples for the City of Los Angeles homelessness budget, the county Homeless Initiative plan and the official homeless count, from the start of the spending surge.
2026 LA homelessness fraud cases involve millions, not billions
Alleged or admitted amounts diverted in the four homelessness fraud cases federal prosecutors announced on Sept. 16, 2026.
Oversight findings on LA and California homelessness money recurred every year since 2022
Entries in FactHub's register of audit findings and fraud cases, by year and category, January 2022 to September 2026.
LA city and county homelessness budgets grew several-fold
Documented City of Los Angeles homelessness budgets and LA County Homeless Initiative spending plans, FY2016-17 to FY2025-26, in millions of nominal dollars.
LA's homeless count rose by more than half after 2016
People counted homeless on one night each year in all of Los Angeles County and in the City of Los Angeles, 2015-2026.
Each of the five largest AI data centers matches 170,000 to 770,000 U.S. homes
Annual electricity of the five largest operating AI data centers (mid-2026), expressed as average U.S. homes, at full and half IT load.
How often I-638 news stories reported facts that answer each side
Share of mainstream (77) and conservative (87) news stories about Washington's I-638, Sept. 8, 2025 to Oct. 23, 2026, that included each of twelve facts. Each fact is labeled with the side whose arguments it answers.
Yes spent on I-638 signatures in 2025; No outspends Yes in 2026
Spending that each main I-638 committee's own expenditure reports tie to I-638, by election year, as reported to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission (itemized expenditures through October 12, 2026, in data downloaded October 23). Shared items are split equally across the measures they name.
Heywood is the largest Yes donor; unions and a foundation lead No
Contributions to Let's Go Washington (the I-638 Yes committee, which also backs I-001 and I-645) and No Hate in WA State (the No committee, which also opposes I-001), 2025 and 2026 election years, by donor group, as reported to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission through October 23, 2026.
A covered checkup costs families $0; lab tests are priced from $21 to $1,310
Prices for each way I-638 lets a provider verify a student's sex, from a covered checkup to a chromosome test, labeled by what kind of price each is.
Change in girls' sports participation, law states minus no-law states
Difference-in-differences estimates of the change in high school sports participation per 1,000 residents aged 14-17, states with laws limiting girls' teams to female students minus states without, with 95% confidence intervals: across specifications, controlling for each state's starting rate, from a 2021-22 base, for boys, and for the years before any law.
High school sports participation per 1,000 teens, states with and without girls' sports eligibility laws
Girls' and boys' NFHS participation per 1,000 residents aged 14-17 of the same sex, 2015-16 to 2025-26, in the 24 states whose laws limiting girls' teams to female students took effect from 2021-22 to 2023-24, and in 22 jurisdictions with no such law or policy.
Most of the 269 entries came at regular-season meets; 13 were at state championships
Stacked bars: the 269 entries in Washington girls' school events that HeCheated.org attributes to male-born athletes, by type of meet and finish.
Ten athletes account for the 269 girls' event entries; one has 36 of the 74 wins
Stacked bars: the 269 entries in Washington girls' school events that HeCheated.org attributes to male-born athletes, by athlete (coded A to J) and finish.
Most state laws reach further than I-638, except on verifying every girl
For eight dimensions of scope, verification and enforcement, the number of the 28 enacted state girls'-sports eligibility laws and regulations that go further than Washington's IL26-638, match it, or go less far.
Link light rail farebox recovery, 2017-2025
The share of Link operating costs covered by fares fell from 43% in 2017 and 34% in 2019 to 12% in 2024 and 2025, below the 17% minimum Sound Transit's Board set in 2024.
Share of Link light rail boardings with fare media, 2019-2025
Sound Transit's count of Link boardings with a record of fare media (ORCA tap, paper or mobile ticket) fell from 86% in 2019 to 56% in 2022-2023 and recovered to 61% in 2024-2025.
WA Cares: lifetime premiums vs. the maximum benefit, by wage
Forty years of WA Cares premiums at each career-average wage, as a plain inflation-adjusted total and as a present value at the fund's 4% assumed return, compared with the $36,500 maximum lifetime benefit and its present value if used at age 85.
Spending above inflation vs. the millionaires tax
Washington's 2023-25 general-fund spending above paths grown from 2013-15 by population and prices (or personal income), beside what the millionaires tax would raise in 2027-29 and 2029-31, in billions of dollars per biennium.
2027-29 budget balance with and without the tax
Projected NGF-O ending balance at the end of 2027-29: the adopted April 2026 outlook with the tax, and with its revenue removed under four assumptions, in billions of dollars.
Washington's $1M+ income swings far more than its sales tax or general fund
Year-over-year percent change in the AGI of Washington returns with income of $1 million or more (IRS, by tax year) compared with state retail sales tax and total general fund revenue (by fiscal year), 1998-2025.