(The Center Square) – The Spokane City Council dug through a report on Monday illustrating the extent of the regional homelessness crisis as more than 7,200 people utilized services across much of last year.
City staff spent months compiling the 2024 Longitudinal Systems Analysis before sending the final copy to Washington, D.C. The data will inform the Annual Homeless Assessment Report presented to Congress by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The agency uses the analysis and others, such as a point-in-time count, to estimate the extent of homelessness nationwide. According to the 2024 LSA, 7,221 individuals accessed services through the Spokane Regional Continuum of Care from October 2023 to September 2024.
Arielle Anderson, director of the Community, Housing and Human Services Department, said the LSA only reflects projects with physical beds attached to them. It won’t record those who sought services through street outreach, eviction prevention or other related programs.
“We’re serving a large number of folks in our community that just simply might not be reflected in that LSA,” Anderson told the council. “We’ve served, minus all those projects I just talked about, 7,000 individuals in 2024 and again, that’s a fraction of what we actually have served.”
While Spokane is still waiting for the results from its most recent PIT Count in January, the 2024 LSA recorded 257% more people than the 2,021 individuals identified in last year’s PIT Count.
The disparity illustrates the difference between visible homelessness on the street and those accessing services across the city. Roughly 22% of those 7,221 people exited to a “permanent destination,” with 7% returning to homelessness, which Anderson said was average.
According to the 2024 LSA, people spent an average of 99 cumulative days homeless.
CHHS analyst Amanda Martinez said 75% of the total people served accessed emergency shelters, with only 7% of those reaching permanent housing. In contrast, of the 20% of the people served who accessed rapid rehousing, 68% managed to exit to a permanent destination.
“Now we can be looking, where are those high performers at,” Anderson said, “and where might there be opportunities to move funding for those interventions.”
