Earlier this week, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) began its federally required point-in-time (PIT) count — an annual estimate of how many people are unhoused in the county.
But Andrea Suarez, the executive director and member at large with We Heart Seattle, raised several concerns regarding how the PIT count is conducted.
“[The count] adopted a peer-based seed method that taps into social networks for the homeless to turn themselves in over a two-week period and say, ‘Hey, I’m homeless. I’ll take a $25 debit card and go tell three of my friends to come turn themselves in, then I get five more dollars for each person that comes in and turns themselves in as homeless.’ They are not required to provide a Social Security number or ID, so it is subject to some integrity issues.”…