Annual survey finds a homeless shift to South King County

Nearly 900 volunteers fanned out across King County early this morning to count the number of men and women sleeping in doorways, under bridges, in greenbelts and in cars as part of the 29th annual one-night count of unsheltered, homeless people.

While the volunteers were heartened to find overall numbers fairly stable compared to last year, the biggest surprise came in the south part of the county, where numbers have jumped 68 percent, increasing from 297 people counted in 2008 to 498 this year, said volunteer Joshua Okrent, a spokesman for the King County/Seattle Coalition on Homelessness.

Okrent said homeless advocates suspect the economy is hitting people harder in South King County and that homeless people are being pushed out of Seattle and other urban areas for more remote, suburban ones. Still, within Seattle city limits, the number of homeless counted — 1,976 — was the same as in 2008, he said.

"There was a lot of evidence people saw of police sweeps," Okrent said. "Places where we expected to find people were empty and there were police notices posted or fences put up to keep people out."

He cited Georgetown and Queen Anne as two neighborhoods where known homeless camps were found empty this morning.

A total of 2,826 homeless people were counted in King County, about a 2 percent increase over 2008, Okrent said. Because volunteers don't disturb people they see on the streets, in makeshift lean-tos or inside parked vehicles, the majority were listed as "gender unknown." Okrent said his peers in other cities across the nation where homeless counts were conducted "are seeing dramatic increases" in the number of people living on the streets.

"I think people here expected the numbers to be larger overall but they were relatively flat," Okrent said. "We saw it as some kind of success that homeless programs being instituted here are working."

From 2:30-6:30 a.m., 869 volunteers divided into 125 teams circled buildings, checked loading bays and walked down alleys and through greenbelts in and around Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville, Shoreline, Kenmore, Bothell, White Center, Federal Way, Kent, Renton and Auburn.

It's been years, Okrent said, since homeless advocates "have had to fight to get volunteers."

"It's a dark story and it doesn't make anybody feel good. But what does feel good is that people are becoming increasingly aware of homelessness as a problem that can happen to any of us," he said. "It's not just the damaged, it's not just the mentally ill — it's something that can reach into each of our lives."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com