King County’s homeless count reaches 18,365 — and tilts further to the street
King County’s annual Point-in-Time Count found 18,365 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in late January 2026 — the highest tally on record, and up 9% from 2024. The increase is real but decelerating: the count rose 26% between 2022 and 2024, and less than half that pace over the two years since.
The harder number is where those people are. Unsheltered homelessness climbed to 11,829, or 64% of the total — up from 58% in 2024 and 57% in 2022. Nearly two in three people counted were outside any shelter: in a tent, a vehicle, or on the street. That share is rising not only because homelessness is growing but because shelter is shrinking: sheltered numbers actually fell, from 7,058 in 2024 to 6,536 in 2026, and the region lost 689 shelter beds between 2025 and 2026 (from 5,958 to 5,269), driven mostly by cuts to family shelter capacity. The gap between the two lines on the chart — the sheltered population — is closing from the wrong direction.
One caveat worth stating plainly, because it’s the most common way this number gets misread. The chart starts in 2022 on purpose. Since 2022, KCRHA and the University of Washington have estimated the unsheltered count using Respondent-Driven Sampling, a HUD-approved method that reaches people not connected to services. Earlier counts — the last was 11,751 in 2020 under the previous All Home street-count method — are not directly comparable, and stitching them onto this series would overstate the trend. Read the 2022→2026 climb; treat anything before it as a different ruler.
Source: King County Regional Homelessness Authority, 2026 Point-in-Time Count and Housing Inventory Count (initial release, June 2026). Count conducted January 29, 2026. Unsheltered estimates use Respondent-Driven Sampling (2022 onward), led by UW; not comparable to pre-2022 street counts. A comprehensive report follows later in 2026. Next count: early 2027.