Homelessness and access to amenities among encampments, shelters, and rental units in Seattle neighborhoods

In the United States, no jurisdiction ensures the fundamental conditions producing health, including housing, even though the phenomenon of homelessness is intensifying. King County, Washington, twelfth largest U.S. county, hosts the third largest homeless population, many of whom reside in Seattle. Discouraging encampments and providing shelter beds has proven ineffective. We investigate how street survivors make encampment choices based on amenities proximity compared to those in shelters and rental units. We analyze rich spatial, administrative, and outreach worker data from Seattle’s Evergreen Treatment Services (REACH) on people living unsheltered (from 2016 to 2022). We discuss the implications of providing effective support for people living unhoused, and provide what is — to our knowledge — the most comprehensive and recent study of neighborhood access and proximity to amenities among the unsheltered population in Seattle, WA. We find that encampment locations more closely reflected the access of renting, housed populations across all amenities in the majority of neighborhoods., and that some amenities provide an opportunity for personal agency with regard to basic needs, particularly food-related amenities (with the exception of food banks), were closer to encampments than shelters. We conclude that housing options that feel like homes rather than institutions are critical to support the unhoused. In the interim, shelters should be more integrated into neighborhoods, and better reflect tent encampment and rental trends. Policymakers and practitioners must provide effective support that centers on autonomy, dignity, and harm reduction for those who survive outside.