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Homeless1.jpg
The primary purpose of the One Night Count is to document how many people still lack basic shelter. Volunteers have been counting the homeless in Seattle, one night in January, for the past 33 years. (Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness photo)

Walking Seattle in dead silence, counting the homeless

January 24, 2013 @ 6:17 pm (Updated: 9:02 am - 1/25/13 )

Two sets of tennis shoes stick out from a wool blanket. The gray, worn soles appear to belong to a man. The small pink shoes next to them would fit a child.

Two people huddled in a doorway of a business off 1st Avenue and Blanchard were among the thousands of people who live and sleep on the streets of Seattle.

A few years ago, I crawled out of my warm bed at 1:00 in the morning to meet with hundreds of other volunteers to count the homeless living on the streets.

It's a project The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness has done for 33 years. The mission was simply to count the number of homeless people living on the streets.

1, 2, 3,...

We whisper as we check our maps. With flashlights, we walk an area from 5th Avenue to the Seattle Waterfront, and from Stewart Street to Battery Street. It's about a 35 block area.

13, 14, 15,...

We begin to count every person we see huddling under a blanket, staying in a tent or cardboard box, and sleeping in a car. We don't interact with anyone. We don't wake anyone up. We just count.

27, 28, 29,...

Most of the homeless were bundled under layers of blankets or tarp. It's difficult to know whether they are men or women. A few are walking around. A security guard urged one man sitting in a doorway to keep moving.

44, 45, 46,...

You don't know your city until you walk it in the dead silence of the night; looking for the people most of us try to avoid seeing during the day.

89, 90, 91.

The Noel House team I was with counted 91 homeless people in our assigned area. In all there were 2,140 unsheltered homeless in King County the year I did the count in 2007.

In 2012 2,594 men, women, and children were without shelter during the three hour street count.

This year 2,736 homeless were counted, which is a five-percent increase over last year.

Over 900 volunteers went out with 125 trained team leaders to pre-arranged areas in parts of Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Shoreline, Kenmore, Bothell, Woodinville, Kent, Federal Way, Renton, Auburn, and White Center.

"The results are impossible to misinterpret: several thousand men, women, and children lack safety and stability," says Alison Eisinger, organizer of the count.

"When hundreds of people see their neighbors sleeping on cardboard or riding buses to keep warm, they are shocked and saddened. We want them to be inspired to urge their local and state officials to address these needs with resources."

By LINDA THOMAS

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (35)


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  • rational wrote...
    The Noel House team I was with counted 91 homeless people in our assigned area.
    January 24, 2013 6:48 pm
    As you were counting did you think on how evil democrats are for trying to block people from providing food for these homeless?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • rational wrote...
    Is evil too extreme?
    January 24, 2013 7:01 pm
    In case you think that I'm being uncharitable for calling democrats evil, check out this article by a leftist writer...

    So what if abortion ends life?

    http://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/so_what_if_abortion_ends_life/

    In my book infanticide is evil. Case closed.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    Is evil too extreme? Answer No!
    January 24, 2013 10:10 pm
    Just calling it like it is.Look at the Hurricane sandy victims..President Obama promised help...Liar.The legislation for relief is a joke..Democrats can easily be compared to the government of North Korea..have a bunch of dependent slaves.
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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    "When hundreds of people see their neighbors sleeping on cardboard or riding buses to keep warm, they are shocked and saddened. We want them to be inspired to urge their local and state officials to address these needs with resources."
    January 25, 2013 12:56 am
    Actually when we do this we are asking, "Where are the jobs, Obama"? Where do all our taxes go? To whom? Where all these "Shovel ready jobs"? All that money has dried up and the shovels still sit on the shelf.

    Thanks to you Comrade Dear Leader!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SickofSeattleite wrote...
    I have NO sympathy for the homeless!
    January 25, 2013 5:28 am
    If they have children with them they should be taken away. The only involvement our resources should have would be exiling them out of the city! I am sick of all these "victims" as for the percentage that are psycho or addicts....jail or forced treatment and or psych centers...everyone else....get over it and provide for yourself and family...boo hoo...victims.....i am so sick of hearing how the government and other people need to take care of everyone else! When is anyone besides the hard working employed tax payers who aren't sucking on the govt tit going to have to pitch in with their share of all the debt and taxes?
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  • Cameron wrote...
    Maybe someone should ask why the Government
    January 25, 2013 5:43 am
    Is spending Tax Dollars to support illegal aliens instead of addressing the homeless citizen population? In an era of limited resources, shouldn't the citizens get the priority?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sportsguru wrote...
    There are some
    January 25, 2013 6:37 am

    Who are in need of a helping hand, but the majority live on the street by choice, they have family, friends etc, but they don't want the stress of everyday life or the expectation placed on them by friends and loved ones.

    They love there existence, I mean love it, they don't pay no bills, they learn the free meal circuits and no where and when to be to get there meals, bus tokens, shower's all the resources you need to do with one poster already indicated. There's a booming market sitting on a corner and collecting pay from passing bleeding hearts that think they are helping, they are helping keep that individual on the street.

    I am for helping people, I have gone up against the jackbooted republicans right here on this site about social issues, but this is one issue that our Social Warriors no matter how honorable there quest, is fighting a losing battle, these people don't want to stress on the numerous things that the productive citizenry has to focus on to remain RELEVENT in todays society.

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    sportsguru will be pleased to know
    January 25, 2013 6:53 am
    That the death rate among the homeless leeches he so despises is astronomical.

    This life of luxury he thinks they are living has claimed a lot of lives. Among the community of just a couple of hundred regulars served by the mission where I volunteer, we seem to lose one every few weeks-especially during the winter. Hypothermia kills.

    Some of those folks laying on a pallet in the middle of a blackberry bramble or sleeping in the doorway of a closed shop lay down at night and freeze to death before morning.

    Cue cheering. "Good! Pretty soon the problem will eliminate itself!"

    Nope.

    Jesus said, "The poor will be with us, always."

    Newsflash for HAHA, when Jesus said that, Obama was not King of Judea. :-)

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    In Yakima
    January 25, 2013 8:06 am
    There was a guy who spent every day, for YEARS at a very busy intersection. Last month he was found dead in his not-so-old mini van with nearly $10K in cash and over $50k in heroin. He had OD'd but this exposed an entire ring of beggars / drug additct & theives who had been sucking resources out of the government. So, the hard working taxpayers get screwed again with ZERO consequences or accountability for the so-called leaders who contiuely piss tax money away. That's why I give to charities that actuall help people. Government just continues to ensentivise and enable these people. .
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    City spends money on the homeless....putting up signs that read "No Parking, 2-5 AM"
    January 25, 2013 6:40 am
    A lot of people who are unhoused manage to scrape together a few hundred bucks to buy an old beater car. A van, or a 1970 something pickup truck with a leaky cabover camper on the back is a real score. I know of specific cases where some of these folks become landlords, renting out sleeping space in their rigs for $3-5 a night.

    A lot of these folks park in the industrial areas of Ballard. Or, did. That was a great place for them to sleep. Not a residential area, all the business establishments closed, and no way they were really hurting anybody.

    The City of Seattle, led by Mayor McSchwinn, hates cars so much that the hatred spills over to the people who are forced to sleep in them. Those signs all over Ballard, "No Parking, 2-5 AM" are a fine sign our civic hatred for the poor.

    And hatred for the rest of us, too. What the heck were the city fathers and mothers thinking? No small portion of these folks suffer from alcoholism. So they sit in a bar until 1:45 and then stagger back to drive their beater cars because the City says it's illegal for them to park (in a virtually abandoned neighborhood)for 3 hours after the bars close. I'll guarantee you that the vast majority of the people sleeping in these vehicles don't have a dime's worth of insurance.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Country_Dog wrote...
    And after counting,..
    January 25, 2013 6:43 am
    they will use a mathematical projecting that assumes the homeless population is uniform across the entire state (including places like Cle Elum, Omak, and Centralia) and come up with a figure that there are 3 million homeless people (most of whom are children with kittens who once lived in Bellevue).

    The next step is then to ask for increased social spending and a state income tax.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Country Dog.. to prevent the onset of "increased social spending and a state income tax"....
    January 25, 2013 7:05 am
    encourage private philanthropy.

    The situation will either not be addressed at all, can be addressed with public dollars, or can be addressed with charitable donations and private contributions.

    The voices in this forum critical of the use of private donations to address the need will, if they successfully persuade enough people to their point of view, create a situation where either *only* tax money will be used to address the situation, or people will be entirely abandoned to starve. Reading through these comments here, it looks like "abandoned to starve" would be the preferred solution for most.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Country_Dog wrote...
    Government crowds out private charity
    January 25, 2013 12:08 pm
    and puts up innumerable barriers for such organizations.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    Go back and read it again HAHA
    January 25, 2013 7:34 am
    Yes and it is still the same. You have some issue with people like us helping? Because I won't give a beggar ONE PENNEY. Ever! I will buy them food clothing. A job application.

    Perhaps you should go back and look at your post there buddy!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    HAHA, ????? I don't recommend handing out money to beggars
    January 25, 2013 8:27 am
    Where did you come up with that?????

    Some of your conservative fellow travelers here are just livid at the idea that somebody like you would buy them food or clothing! (as you just posted you do, so good for you). Their opinion is that even private charity and philanthropy creates a "magnet" for homelessness in our community, and that increases the risk that somebody, somewhere, someday, might raise their taxes and take a couple of bucks out of their paychecks.

    Funny how the far right always cries, "There should be no social spending! Leave it up to charity and private philanthropy!" and then some of them beach because they dislike the way that some charities and philanthropists spend that private money

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    US Military a huge contributor to homelessness....
    January 25, 2013 7:51 am
    People would be astonished to discover the percentages of people on the street who are veterans.

    We treat too many of our veterans like just so much trash. Lots of street people were physically and/or emotionally damaged while serving their country, and denied proper care after they mustered out. Agent Orange was a good example, how many decades did it take for the VA to finally admit there was a problem?

    I guess lives are more easily thrown away than tax dollars. Proper post-service care can be expensive. "Just suck it up, and be proud that you served your country! You were lucky enough to come home at all, weren't you?"

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  • sportsguru wrote...
    Again I am sorry Chuck
    January 25, 2013 8:30 am

    But, I was in the military and I was part of a war and my military service was a benefit for me in Corporate America.

    You are very good at making excuses for people, I would love to work for you, I could do anything I wanted and give you a sob story and get a raise out of it,lol.

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