Seattle, Washington Although Washington’s homelessness rate is still rising, the state Department of Commerce’s data indicates that last year’s growth rate slowed in most of the state.
This occurs at a time when the state has spent billions of dollars in recent years to help individuals leave homelessness and increase affordable housing. The Department of Commerce data comes from the 2025 Point In Time Count, which counts the number of homeless persons on a single night in January each year.
Interestingly, the report omitted data on unsheltered homelessness in King County, which is home to Seattle. King County’s unsheltered data was excluded since it completes its whole Point In Time Count in even-numbered years.
According to the Department of Commerce, historically, King County has been responsible for around half of all unsheltered results in the state. People who live on the streets or in other public areas are considered unsheltered homeless.
In Washington, 22,173 persons were homeless as of January 30, according to the state tally.
According to the Department of Commerce, 67% of the total were experiencing sheltered homelessness in settings like emergency shelters or transitional homes, while 33% were experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
The aggregate number of homeless people has increased by 25% since 2022 and by 4.4% from 2024. The year-over-year growth is significantly less than the 14.8% increase from 2022 to 2023, but it is about in line with the 4.07% increase from 2023 to 2024.
According to the Department of Commerce, the Point In Time Count is not the most accurate measure of homelessness, even though it is a useful tool for comparing states on one night each year. Weather, the availability of shelter beds, the amount of volunteers, the various approaches used by counties, and other variables all affect the results.
The Department of Commerce compiles an annual snapshot of homelessness report, which integrates client data from three state agency data systems to offer a thorough assessment of the state’s homeless and unstably housed population, in order to supplement the count with more accurate data.
According to that research, the number of homeless people in Washington has been steadily rising over the past 12 months, albeit slowly. According to the report, there were 158,791 homeless or in emergency shelters in January 2025, up 2.2% from 155,356 in January 2024 and 8.9% from 145,736 in January 2022. The King County numbers are included in the data.
According to snapshot report data, the number of homeless persons in Washington actually declined from 159,525 in 2023 to 155,356 in 2024, but it has since increased this year.
The most recent figures are still too high, according to Department of Commerce Director Joe Nguyn, and more needs to be done to buck the trends.
Nguyn said in a statement this week that far too many individuals in our communities don’t know where they’ll sleep at night or whether they’ll be safe when they try to relax.
During the 2025-27 biennium, the Legislature allocated over $1.8 billion to housing and homelessness, including programs for adults, families, and adolescents experiencing homelessness as well as Commerce initiatives like the Housing Trust Fund and Connecting Housing to Infrastructure.
As a 501c(3) public charity, Washington State Standard is a member of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network backed by grants and a coalition of donors. The editorial independence of Washington State Standard is upheld. For inquiries, send an email to [email protected] to reach Editor Bill Lucia.
