It's a difficult question to answer, though it is estimated that in Seattle alone, there are 700 to 1,000 youth with no safe place to sleep each night. It's relatively easy to add up the number of youth staying in shelters on a given night, but until recently, few homeless counts tracked unaccompanied homeless youth and young adults living in unstable housing or on the streets. That is beginning to change, however. On May 16, service providers, in collaboration with United Way of King County, will host its second annual youth point in time count, known as “Count Us In.”
Count Us In will take place at meal sites across the county offering free food and limited assistance to young people without a safe and permanent home, similar to the 2011 pilot year. In addition, the 2012 the Count Us In effort is expanded to involve agencies serving youth in South Seattle who are unstably housed.
The goal of this annual effort is to gain a clearer understanding of the number of young people without a stable place to live on any given night in King County. By enhancing the King County community’s knowledge of this issue, we can further our efforts to create a community where no youth is left without a place to call home.
2012 Count Us In Community Partners:
Asian Counseling and Referral Services
Atlantic Street Center
Auburn Youth Resources
Central Youth and Family Services
City of Seattle Parks Department
Consejo
Friends of Youth
New Horizons
Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets
POCAAN
Seattle Youth Employment Program
Teen Feed
Union Gospel Mission
YMCA Youth and Young Adult Services
YouthCare
For more information about the count, please contact Hedda McLendon, YouthCare's Director of Programs, at hedda.mclendon@youthcare.org.
