Homelessness

The number of schoolchildren experiencing homelessness in Washington state has more than doubled in the past decade. According to a new report, their lack of stable housing takes a significant academic toll.

Earlier this year, elected leaders in Seattle did a rapid about-face on a tax that would have collected money from large employers like Amazon to fund programs to address homelessness.

At the time, poll numbers showed a majority of voters opposed the idea. While council members and Mayor Jenny Durkan were changing their positions, they were also exchanging text messages -- with each other, and with power brokers in the city. 

How local officials should address homelessness has proven to be one of the most divisive questions across the Puget Sound region.

Few cities are more divided at the moment than Puyallup, where city leaders are considering a law that would make it harder to open a shelter or drop-in center serving the homeless.

The Puyallup City Council is moving closer to passing a law that would make it more difficult to open a shelter or daytime drop-in center serving people who are homeless.

The proposal follows four years of conflict surrounding the city's only drop-in center, which some residents and business owners have blamed for making homelessness and drug use more visible in the city's downtown. 

The actors in "Room For Rent" wear elaborate animal masks. A hen, a cuckoo bird, a cat, a squirrel. 

Behind the masks are people who are homeless or have experienced homelessness in the past.

Three times this summer, they've stood before audiences of people who know little about what that's like and tried to bridge a gap of understanding.

Pierce County Council members have postponed a vote on a program that would connect homeless people with work as day laborers. 

A vote was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but county officials requested it be held off so they could refine the proposal, a county spokeswoman said. 

Tempers have flared in the past few months over Seattle's response to homelessness. 

Much of that started online. Many people share their frustrations about tents or crime on Facebook groups or websites like Nextdoor. 

Real Change reporter Ashley Archibald looked into how that online speech manifests in the real world. 

If you walk into any homeless shelter in Washington state, or anywhere in the U.S., you're likely to see a disproportionate number of African-Americans.

It's a sign of a mystery lying at the intersection of race and homelessness in America: African-Americans seem especially vulnerable to losing their homes, even when compared to equally poor white people.

In a major reversal, the Seattle City Council is expected to vote Tuesday to repeal a controversial business “head tax” it approved less than a month ago.

Steve Rhoades will soon be on his way to Alaska. On June 14, he will leave his home on Bainbridge Island with nothing but survival supplies, a twenty-foot paddelboard and his hands — his motor of choice for a more than 750-mile naval journey.

In Seattle and King County, homelessness is a state of emergency. The city council is considering a new “head tax” on business to help fund responses to the emergency. But critics say a lot of money has already been spent, without much success.

Amazon is pausing development on two buildings in downtown Seattle as the City Council considers a "head tax" on large businesses.

Sometimes, lifting families out of homelessness requires a large investment of government time and money.

Other times, it just requires a light touch at a critical moment. 

Tacoma City Council members voted Tuesday to allow up to six legal tent cities or other temporary shelters to open throughout the city.

That could give Tacoma a total of seven legal encampments, even more than Seattle's six.

Leaders in Tacoma could allow up to six legal tent cities to open. The move is part of a yearlong shift in the way city officials manage homelessness.

The Seattle City Council is reconsidering a "head tax" on businesses to pay for housing and homeless services after council members failed to pass such a tax last year.

Activists and officials on the front lines of the fight against homelessness in Washington say they just had their most successful legislative session in recent history.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated an incorrect number of deaths of homeless people investigated by the medical examiner. The correct number is 169. We apologize for the error.

Between 2012 and 2018, the number of homeless deaths in King County more than doubled. Last year alone, the King County Medical Examiner investigated 169 deaths of people determined to be homeless.

Stemming a tide of homelessness on the West Coast is hard enough for major cities like Seattle, where coffers are full of tax revenue from technology companies and generous levies.

When you're running a smaller city like Olympia, where the budget is about one-fortieth the size of Seattle's, the task can be even harder. 

When the Burien City Council passed a trespass law four years ago, critics said it targeted the city's homeless population.  

Now, a new City Council is weighing a repeal of the law, which allows police to kick people out of public spaces for "disruptive" behavior. It could come up for a vote at a meeting on Monday at 7 p.m. 

This winter's flu season is particularly bad, but it's especially dangerous to people without housing, who can be more likely to catch the flu and have a tougher time shaking it, according to service providers. 

Leaders in Tacoma have hired two artists-in-residence to help the city grapple with human elements of a homelessness crisis.